Baby Mama
by Neteret
Summary: One of Calleigh's twins is kidnapped. This leads Horatio into a dark world of babies made to order.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Kaila hurt all over. She had not been given any food in perhaps three days. Her only drink had been from the decaying faucet in the bathroom. Then ten foot drop from the second floor window had not helped.

Propped against the rough stucco wall, she lay in a heap, trying to catch her breath. She wanted to move so that her back, at least, was against the wall, not her bare arm, but she just did not have the strength. The effort of lifting that bathroom window, of hiking herself to the ledge and then lowering herself down as far as the grasp on the ledge would allow before letting go had taken her every last bit energy. It was just that she couldn't wait any longer! Yeah, they would have brought food eventually. They had to if they wanted her alive and she knew they did. But then, the same thing as before would have happened and that was worse than starving.

It had taken her a month of pushing at the window over and over to loosen the several layers of paint around the casing. It had cracked easiest at the bottom but the sides had taken hours every day of push, push, push.

The one other girl in the room had paid no attention to what she did. She spent most of the time lying on the thin mattress in the corner, facing the wall. Occasionally she would pick her nose and lay the bloody gooey bits on the wall. Sometimes she stirred to get a drink of water and relieve herself in the toilet, always forgetting or perhaps just neglecting to flush. If she noticed what Kaila was doing, she showed no signs.

Kaila wondered if she looked as bad as this girl did. Since she never spoke or answered any questions, Kaila did not know if the girl had yet been through the same suffering. If her appearance was any sign, she had been through worse. The silence, at least, served to keep her activities at the window secret. For sure, once she had the window open, the girl showed no interest in the sound.

Once Kaila had raised the sash window, the fresh air seemed to invigorate her. She knew it was now or never. After taking a quick look down, it seemed to take very little exertion to hike her leg up through the small opening. She was so thin now, she was able to fold herself and, holding onto the ledge of the window, pull her other leg down until she hung on the outside of the building. She had taken a ragged breath and let herself drop. Now, in the dark, she felt like a rag doll with most of the stuffing gone.

If it had not been for the enticing odor on the stray breeze coming down the alley, she would have fallen asleep. The odor was that of food and it was coming from that dumpster barely twenty feet away. Yes, mixed with stuff she did not want to think about now but the main thing was that the main part was real food!

As if riding the enticing waft, she rose and almost ran to the rusted, smelly bin. Five minutes later the thin girl in a sleeveless chemise that barely came down to the middle of her thighs was kneeling on the ground trying to swallow the fourth mouthful of the egg salad sandwich and potato chips combined. Thank goodness it had been enclosed in a Styrofoam box so bugs had not gotten into it yet. She knew it was old and the passing thought that she might get sick from the old food came and went. Maybe by the time she had thrown up this food, she would have found more.

Suddenly, a light and a shout from above alarmed her. The second most important thought in her head now took precedence. Still holding the last quarter bit of sandwich, she ran to the end of the alley and down the deserted sidewalk. She had no idea what time it was, only that every building was dark, that there were no cars driving down the streets. Where was anybody? She had been so sure that if she could get out she would find help.

She couldn't stop and knock. They would get her if she had to wait for someone to open a door. All there was now were the slapping sounds of her bare feet on the cement and a distance drumming of heavier feet that seemed to be getting louder. All she could think of to do was to run!

At some point Kaila became conscious of a sort of roaring that drowned out the other sounds. She could feel her legs pumping, her feet slapping but she could not hear them because of the hollow, deep reverberation in her head. The sound seemed to bring a sense of being dizzy as well. Was she about to faint? She had never fainted before. If she did, she knew for sure she was doomed! Worse, she was aware that whoever was chasing her was still back there but she did not hear how close.

Then her head began to swim and the straight path she was running began to waiver. Suddenly, the sidewalk rose up and slammed into her face. Just then, she felt rough hands pulling her up and swing her around. Briefly she saw the man who most often brought food. The next thing she saw was the butt end of a fist which drove her backwards and onto the cement. Again, she was pulled up.

"You bitch! You think you can run away?"

The fist hit her again.

"There's only one way you leave us."

Another face wavered into Kaila's waning vision.

"Won't Tia Reba want us to bring her back? She's probably still good."

"Nah, she told me that once they try to get away, they're going to keep trying. She says we can always get more. You hold her for me. She's mine now."

Kaila felt her arms forced behind her and held tightly.

"Ain't you gonna goose her? Can I?"

Suddenly Kaila felt a blow to her stomach.

"You got a girlfriend and so do I. We don't need no dirty little skinny bitch. We leave them to the stable studs."

The next blow hit the girl on the side of her head. No one noticed the bit of bread and egg salad dropping from her clutches onto the walkway.

As her vision and hearing faded into oblivion, the dying girl saw the streetlight brighten to blinding white and then go dark. The voice behind the blows sounded more and more satisfied until she could hear no more.

When Horatio Caine climbed out of the Crime Scene Investigation silver Humvee, he paused. To anyone's eye, he seemed to be observing the scene's activities; a uniformed officer wrapping tape around the leaning fence poles to block access to the empty lot, another officer on the other side of the area filling with waist high weeds pulled tape across the access from the alley, outside of the tape, on the sidewalk outside of the battered fence, a department detective talking with two boys. What looked to be their nervous mothers were standing behind the boys.

The phone call first thing in the morning announcing a dead body and an address had aroused him from a pleasant dream. Now he couldn't remember much about it except that he and Solange were walking across a desert. He was carrying an umbrella to shade her and she kept pushing it towards him. He wanted them to walk more closely together and share the shade but she had told him no. They were both laughing at the incongruity of the situation.

Now, while standing under the warming sun, Horatio was allowing his mind to go through the same grind it always did on first arrival at a new crime scene; how much he loved the constant challenge of finding the puzzle pieces in a crime and putting them together. Finding enough evidence to find the murderer, making sure it was not one of those crimes that got lost in the shuffle of priorities, and after finding the killer, making sure there was enough evidence in the eyes of the law to convict. Or was this constant challenge, perhaps a just a reassurance he would never be out of a job, that crime in the Miami-Dade area was a form of job security?

Settling his mind to the matter at hand, the head of Miami Dade's CSI team allowed his eyes to take over. The gold glints in his red hair flashed as he turned his head from side to side. The position of the tape showed that the body was somewhere in the empty lot. He looked along the narrow dirt trail in the weeds that stretched from the cracked sidewalk into the weeds. He bet it broke into two about midway to head either direction into the alley. The sun's heat already was giving rise to the dry smell of dead vegetation combined with the decaying smell of fresher growth that was now dying off after a week of no rain. In between the small silences of the working officers, an occasional high pitched buzz could be heard. Already, the blow flies were finding their favorite place to lay eggs; a dead body.

"Waiting for me, H?"

Horatio's head dropped for a second before he looked through his dark glasses over at Eric Delko. His gaze caught a small welt on the younger man's neck. "I hope you gave as good as you got there."

The CSI team member, smiled self-consciously and pulled at his collar in an attempt to cover the mark. "None of the shirts I have at Valera's place would cover it. I've told her to quit."

"Not to worry, I understand, brother." Horatio's voice was light and very quiet. "How long have you two been together now?"

"A little over a year."

"You thinking of making it permanent?"

"You mean, like, marriage? I don't know. I'd hate to ruin a good thing."

"Do you think things would change between you if you got married?"

"Don't they?"

"Talk it over with her. Find out what she thinks marriage should be."

"I don't know if I want to go there, yet. We're doing fine as we are."

Horatio nodded and kept quiet. He wondered if Eric had yet considered how Valera felt.

Finally he said, "You start your approach to the body. I'll see what the detective is finding out."

"Sure. Where's Tripp?"

"He took a day off after ten straight days of duty. Calleigh pulled double shift for the last five days so she's taking a day off too. Walter should be here any moment."

Horatio approached the huddle of the young boys and adults and introduced himself.

A dark haired man almost as tall as Horatio turned. "Nice to meet you Lieutenant. I'm Detective Ward Fargo. These boys found the body. This is Mark Soto"

The taller of the two boys, the whites of his eyes showing plainly around the dark irises and against the near black skin was still excited, spoke eagerly. "We was just cuttin' across the lot to get to school, like we always do."

The shorter one, freckled with green eyes peeking from behind a veil of brown hair added, "We was walkin' the bikes because the path is too rough to ride. I mean on a school day."

"You mean you wouldn't want to risk falling and getting your school uniforms dirty."

The black lad replied, "Yeah, Sister Theresa-Ann stands at the door and sends anyone with dirty clothes back home to change and then marks us tardy." His tone of voice showed no approval of the discipline.

"So, you had time to observe the lot as you walked your bikes."

"Yeah, she's right by the path. We hightailed it to my house to tell my mom when we saw her."

"Where do you live?"

Both of the boys pointed down the sidewalk. The two women standing behind either boy nodded in unison.

"And what school do you go to?"

"Saint Bart's over off of St. Le Jeune Avenue. We cut through the lot here, go down the alley to the back of the grocery store, through the lot, down Flagler and take the street in back of the school where we can park our bikes."

The shorter boy broke in, "We're already late. Can you give us a written excuse about why we're late? Father Luke won't believe us for a second."

"Not to worry. So, you went home and told your mothers?"

The slender black woman standing in back of her son spoke up. "They got to my place first. I live closest to the street. I called Tony's mother and then I called 911. We came here and waited."

She turned her head to the lot. "That poor thing."

"So, you went into the lot?"

"Just to be sure the boys weren't telling tales. You know how boys can be."

Horatio smiled briefly. "Indeed I do ma'am."

Fargo interjected, "I already asked if they had touched anything."

The shorter boy's mother fairly leaped at the remark. "I made sure none of us did anything like that. I watch a lot of crime shows. Only Shawna here went to look and I told her to try to follow her own foot prints out too."

Horatio decided not to mention that the boys' shuffling down the path with their bikes and then running back had already destroyed any evidence on the path in that direction. "Thank you Mrs…?"

"Braverton, Ruth Braverton. And this is Shawna Soto. My son here is Tony and he's Mark. We live down the block in the Sun Palms Gardens apartments. I live two units in back of hers. She's on the street."

The two men looked at each other. In private they would have rolled their eyes at the amount of information being fed them. Sure, most of the information was useful but only when asked for and in somewhat more detail. As it was, long experience had taught both of the officers that waiting for chatters to wind down was easier and, in the end, got them more information when they needed it.

The abundantly figured Mrs. Braverton went on, "Do you know who she is? Shawna says she didn't recognize her."

Horatio turned to look at the lot. "You'll have to excuse me for now. Detective Fargo needs to get more information from you. I'll see what I can do about a note for Father Luke."

As if on cue, another silver Hummer pulled up in the street and Walter Simmons pulled himself out much like disengaging himself from a tight shoe.

Nodding to Fargo, Horatio walked over to greet the six and a half foot team member.

"Sorry I'm late, H. Someone forgot to gas up this thing. Do you know how long it takes to put in almost twenty-three gallons of fuel?"

"No worries. The medical examiner hasn't arrived yet. I'm not sure that Eric has finished clearing the path either."

Walter walked to the bright yellow police tape and peered at the enclosed area. "The exit to the alley is pretty wide so I'm betting the path splits to head in either direction. It looks like Delko has the one side covered so I'll go around and take the other."

"Go in from this side. It was already disturbed by the witnesses." Horatio nodded to the where the boys were standing.

Walter nodded. "I know the story already. I went to a Catholic school in Louisiana. They were walking careful so's not to get clothes dirty, saw the body, ran home. Tomorrow they're going to be heroes and no blame for missing a day at school. Sweet."

The large black man paused before ducking under the tape. "You get a look at the body yet?"

"Not yet. I'm going to follow you in and wait for the M.E."

Walter raised the tape and ducked under then kept it elevated for his superior. Six foot even, Horatio hardly had to bow his head the tape was held so high.

As Walter swung his steps down the path, Horatio again paused surveying the scene. He was hardly aware of the spa like heat and humidity outside of his black jacket and striped shirt having long ago learned to accept the tropical conditions.

The lot was a mass of both dead and green vegetation. He suspected that somewhere in there was something left of a building. This area between West Little Havana and East Little Havana had been long settled, built and devastated as storms and economy destroyed and made room. In Florida, any place left to its own devices for very long was fair game for wild growth and often covered over in a matter of a few months.

Even knowing that any evidence of footprints had been walked on already, Horatio placed his feet carefully as he set his gaze onto the weeds on either side of the path. He was looking for any part of a print, anything out of place, any bit that hadn't seen more than a few hours of weather.

The body of the girl was about two feet short of Walter's predicted split in the trail. The positioning of her body made it obvious that it was a hasty dump. Someone had carried her in and tossed her like so much unwanted trash.

Much to the unhappiness of his aging knees, Horatio squatted, to avoid getting his pants dirty. Even dry Florida clay was the devil to get out. Following the practice he had too often performed in his life, he said a silent prayer for the girl's soul before getting down to business.

In spite of the horrible bruising on her body, he saw only a light layer of dirt. Her hair was matted, but basically clean. The emaciation may have been a recent development since there were no accompanying signs that went with chronic starvation such as cracked skin and scars from rash. The too tiny dress that barely covered past her hips was not clean and it was a bit ragged but showed no signs of elements. Her feet were only dirty on the soles, again showing evidence she had been inside until very recently. Strange. More, she had probably been a pretty little girl with a heart shaped face and corn silk blond hair. At least, she had been pretty until someone had brutally rearranged her features.

"Just how long are you going to hold me up, Sweetie?"

Horatio rose with only slight effort at the sound to the familiar voice.

"Alexx, what are you doing here?"

"Got called in as an emergency stand-in. I guess Loman is on vacation and there was a mishap at the oil refinery so the sub medical examiner is up to his arm pits. They called me for this one."

"I won't say I'm sorry."

Dr. Alexx Woods gave Horatio a toothy grin that showed bright against her coffee dark skin. "I can't say I am either." Then she held up a delicately long fingered hand. "Just don't get any ideas. I'm not ready to come back. I'm here for this case and then I'm back to part time work at the E.R. You got it?"

Horatio looked at his longtime friend. "I'll take whatever I can get."

Alexx looked down for the first time and without hesitation kneeled down, putting her kit beside her. "Oh, baby-girl, what happened to you?"

Horatio was glad to see that the former Medical Examiner, who had left forensics to spend more time with her family, quickly revert to her former way of dealing with the dead. She always addressed the dead as if they could sit up and tell her the cause of their demise. She had always said her job was to give voice to the dead and they deserved all the care and concern of the living.

Looking up, she said, "Unless I'm mistaken, this girl was beaten to death. She shows signs of malnourishment but I don't think it was bad enough to kill her. Of course, I'll…"

Horatio finished her sentence before she could, "know more after the autopsy."

Alexx smiled. "This is like putting on an old harness."

"We never really forget our habits. Is there anything else?"

Alexx finished feeling her way through the girl's hair and then felt down her arms to the hands. "Her hands are scratched but I don't think it's a human. It looks like she was hanging on to something. I'll examine it more closely in the morgue. I also see some trace under her fingernails but I don't think its skin."

The doctor turned to her field exam kit and pulled out a plastic bag and a small wooden stick. Using the stick, she scraped under a nail and slid it into the plastic bag. She quickly took a bit of red evidence tape and a marker from another compartment, initialed the tape and then filled in the date, sex of the victim and the location

"Thank you Alexx. Would you please see to it that Valera gets right on this?"

Rising, Alexx stood and motioned to the helpers who were standing by at the edge of the field. "I'll send it to her as soon as I get in. I'll have more for you in a few hours."

"I know you will."

Horatio gladly accepted the warm hug Alexx gave him as she said, "I'm glad to see you again, even under these circumstances."

The two exchanged an extended look of mutual admiration before parting. Their history in the department was long and when Alexx had felt she had to leave, it was hard on both of them.

Even though no one called out, Alexx seemed to know when the body had been loaded into the van. With a parting grin, she turned and walked on. Horatio paused a moment, filled with many thoughts, and then followed.

Before reaching the sidewalk, he turned to the field and mentally catalogued everything from possible evidence to who had said what. He had long given up the policeman's notebook.

"Mister? Are you a policeman?"

The child's voice was by his side. "Yes, I am. I'm sorry but you have to stay outside of the tape." Horatio lifted the tape and walked out with the child.

"What's your name, son?"

"Tovi, Tovi Manuel Engstrom." The dark skinned face was earnest and somehow anxious at the same time.

"Tovi, I'm Horatio Caine and I'm a detective. See that tape? You can't go inside that tape."

"I just wondered if you could walk me home."

"Don't you know the way?"

The boy's bright green eyes flashed as he bobbed his blond frizzy head. "Yeah, sure I do. It's just that…that…"

Horatio's phone rang.

"Yes Frank? What are you doing calling me? Isn't this your day off?"

"Horatio, come down to the Ten Palms Mall. Little Jake's been kidnapped!"

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Horatio did not often run unless in pursuit of a fleeing felon. This was an exception. His friends were in dire need and he could not get to them fast enough. He had found the mall entrance where the most patrol cars were parked and sprinted in. Inside the huge shopping mall most of the shoppers were completely unconcerned with anything but their own business. An officer at the entrance directed him to the second level and it was like running hurdles to get around the buyers. Only a few people showed any obstinacy at being shoved aside and Horatio could only leave them swearing and fuming.

One man did go as far as to chase him all the way to where Frank and Calleigh were sitting. Before Horatio could ask what had happened, the man came from behind to challenge his behavior.

"You nearly knocked my girlfriend down, you clown! I'm going to teach you some manners!"

Turning on him, shoving the skirt of his jacket to one side to show his badge, Horatio calmed himself. "I apologize for that, sir. This is an emergency. I hope I didn't cause you or your lady any harm."

The man's eyes widened as his mouth dropped soundless open. After a second, he recovered enough to say, "Hey, man, no problem. I just hope everything goes okay for you. I love you guys, honest. Sorry." He was backing away as he spoke and could not get down the escalator fast enough.

Turning to face his friends, he could not help but notice that the four month old Frank, Jr. was alone in the double seat stroller. His twin, known as little Jake, was missing.

Frank Tripp, a sergeant detective for the Miami-Dade Police Department and his wife Calleigh Duquesne, a member of Horatio's team, sat holding hands, both staring at their remaining child. Calleigh's chin dripped with a constant flow of silent tears.

Taking out a linen handkerchief from his inside jacket pocket, he handed it to Calleigh. She took it but only held it in her hands.

"What happened, Frank?"

Usually, Frank rose to talk with Horatio. This time, he remained seated as he turned his green eyes up to meet the blue ones. "We were here shopping. We stopped to look at a set of football T's for babies. Frank, Jr. started crying and Calleigh went around to look under the hood to see what the matter was and found little Jake gone."

"How long has it been?"

Frank looked at his watch. "Thirty-five minutes. I yelled for Security and told him to put every guard on the alert and called it in. They shut down all the exits. The uni's started to arrive within fifteen minutes."

Horatio's mind ticked off the information and compared it with the to-do list of a mall kidnapping. Looking around at the gathering crowd who was being kept back by a ring of uniformed officers, he noticed the usual number of camera phones clicking.

"I'll be right back, Frank."

He went over to an officer making notes. "I'd like you to find anyone in the crowd who was here before the alarm was called out who might have been using their cells to take pictures. Get them over in a group to one side. I'll talk with them later."

Horatio went back to the couple huddled together, still staring at the stroller. Frank, Jr. seemed to be asleep.

"Frank, did you call anyone else from the team?"

"I called the lab. Ryan and Natalia are on the way."

"Good. They should be here in about five more minutes."

"Frank, can you remember anything, anything more which could help?"

Tripp's eyes stole from the stroller and up to the surrounding crowd. His shoulders rose as he took a deep breath. "God, Horatio, I, I don't think so. I mean, we maybe looked away for a minute, if that." His eyes went up to the Lieutenant. "Yeah, and how often have I heard that in a kidnap case?" His head dropped to his chest. "Jeez! I never would have thought this would happen to me…to us!"

Horatio spread his stance and placed his hands on either side of his two pieces of 'identity,' his gold badge and his gun. He thoughtfully raised his eyes to the mall's tinted glass roof. "Frank, I don't think any law officer believes anything bad can happen to him, until it does."

Realizing Calleigh had stayed silent, Horatio went around to her side and kneeled down. "Calleigh, how are you doing?"

The blonde turned her still wet face to Horatio, her blue-green eyes brimming. "Oh Horatio, how could this happen? I'll die if we don't get our baby back."

Horatio placed his hand on his team second in command's shoulder. "We'll get him back, Calleigh. Every officer on the force is going to be working on it, I'll see to that."

Calleigh almost made a move to collapse against Frank's shoulder and stopped to resume her steady gaze on her remaining child. It was obvious she wasn't going to let the child out of her sight for some time to come.

"Horatio, we're here. What do we do first?"

Ryan Wolfe would ordinarily have started on his own when approaching a crime scene but the question showed he knew his boundaries. Horatio rose to tell him what had happened so far.

Natalia Boa Vista replaced Horatio at Calleigh's side, offering what comfort she could.

After filling Ryan in, he pointed to the group held in tow by an officer. "Tie their cells in to yours and download any photos they may have been taking of the scene at the time or even up to the time we got them together."

"Yeah, in case the kidnapper or someone with him hung around to watch."

"Exactly. Meanwhile, I'm going to check with the mall security and get their tapes."

Horatio turned quickly so as not to look at his friends. The very idea that someone would cause them such great pain much less kidnap his godchild put murder in his heart. If he ever got his hands on whoever did this, he would come out worse for the wear. That being said, however, he had to now take a mental and emotional step back so he could do his job. Only by dispassionately looking for the evidence and analyzing it could he have any hope of finding who did this. Then, he could let loose.

Getting directions to the room that held the security recording equipment, he went on to wonder who should have first crack at the kidnapper, himself or Frank and Calleigh. Whoever was first would probably not leave much for the next. He did would not mind giving the perp to Frank or Calleigh if it came to that; they deserved that much.

The recording-viewing room was surprisingly small. Two men sat at a console of fifteen small monitors. The man wearing a small badge marked Supervisor, Jeff, filled the rest of the space. Horatio had to hold the door open to talk to Jeff.

"I just got the message from our security man, Mark, down on the second floor. You're Lieutenant Caine, I take it?"

"And I want the tapes from the cameras covering that area and any possible path the kidnapper may have taken away from that area."

"We're already running copies of the last hour from all the cameras in that area. Let me run up a plan of possible escape routes and figure out what cameras were used."

"How long will this take?"

"Give me another half hour or so."

"When you have them, send someone with the copies down to the scene please."

"Sure thing. You know, I feel awful…" The man turned to continue to offer his apology and found he and the two men manning the monitors were alone.

Tripp was up on his feet when Horatio returned. His stunned grief had turned to a Texas sized murderous rage. As much as he would have liked to have Frank's help on the case, he knew what he had to do.

Apparently, Frank was ahead of him. "I'm taking Calleigh and Frank Jr. home or I'll start running around questioning everyone about what they saw expecting to get answers or know the reason why."

"I'm sure you can take whatever time you need. I'll get Yelina on this. As for Calleigh, when she's ready to hear it, tell her she can take all the time she needs."

Tripp gave his wife a long glance. "Yeah, I will. As for whether I can or can't take time, I will whether the brass likes it or not. I'm not leaving Calleigh until I know she's okay."

In spite of himself, Horatio mentally started pondering who was going to have to do what, stand in for who, on what job, and so on until his two main people could return to their duties. Life was not supposed to play a part in a police officer's job but in spite of all the swearing in and dedication, it sometimes did. As head of the Crime Scene Investigation team, he had to roll with these vicious punches and see that the crimes got solved anyway.

"Wolfe, since you are downloading the phones, I want you to also be in charge of the security recordings. A man will be down with copies in about forty minutes or so."

Hardly looking up from his task of blue toothing phone after phone Ryan Wolfe replied, "Sure thing H. How is Calleigh holding up?"

Horatio looked over his shoulder at the bench where the couple had been. "Frank took her home. She may be out for a while."

Natalia Boa Vista came up, "She's in shock right now."

After he mumbled another thank you to another shopper who had momentarily relinquished her phone, Wolfe said, "I would be too. We'll find little Jake and bring him back home."

"At least we have his double…" Natalia's voice trailed off and her large brown eyes got wide. "And he'll always be his double. Horatio, babies change fast but Frank, Jr. will always be the same as little Jake. We can put out pictures every couple of weeks of Frank, Jr. and say it is little Jake! We can do this for years!"

Horatio drew back a bit as he did when he was about to disagree without disagreeing. "Let's hope we don't have to do it for years. For now Natalia, I need you to find as many security guards as you can. Ask them if they noticed anyone rushing away from the scene. If nothing else, the path would have been noted by the number of people he upset as he rushed away."

"Got'cha. I'll start across the space here on the second floor and then go up floor by floor. With the open space all the way down to the ground floor and up to the ceiling, there would be multiple vantage points." Natalia marched away.

Horatio faded into himself again, this time considering what else could be done for the scene. Any physical evidence was gone or tainted by now. The security recordings were the best eye witnesses. Natalia was interviewing the next best witnesses, the security guards.

The familiar jangle of his cell came from his jacket pocket. "Yes Walter?"

"H, we found the primary on where the victim was killed."

"I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

Turning the investigation of the kidnapping over to Ryan, Horatio was quickly in the Hummer and speeding west on Flagler Street. From one scene to another and back; just another day in the life.

Following the direction Walter had given him, he found Walter busily snapping pictures and laying out markers for evidence he couldn't bag.

"What have we got Walter?"

"It starts down there, a little bit of blood and I think some epithelials. I took a sample. I got a look at the body before Alexx took it away and saw one knee was badly scraped. I'm guessing she might have been running, fell and got back up. Here, whoever it was, got hold of her and beat the tar out of her. I've got spatters and drops and places where her bare feet scraped. I also have a couple of bloody shoe prints. It looks like there were two, one held her while the other beat on her."

"That should be helpful."

"Yeah, if it isn't some of the local population's not paying attention to a spatter of blood."

Ignoring Walter's low opinion of the local population, Horatio looked around. "So, she came from that direction to here. She was being chased. Do we have an idea where she came from?"

"I walked a block in that direction and didn't see anything else. I was planning on doing a more thorough examination down there once I had finished with this area."

"Good. Is Eric still at the empty lot?"

"He said he had finished and was headed back to the lab."

"I'm going to take a second look at the lot before I head back too."

"I'll be in eventually, depending on what I find further on down. By the way, did I hear right? Someone kidnapped one of Calleigh's twins?"

"You did. If we possibly can, we might have to put this case on a back burner and let the police handle as much as they will. I want as many of us on the kidnapping as we have room for."

"Good. I was going to say I'd like to help."

"We're all going to be on the kidnapping. Finish up here; see if you can establish where the girl came from then hand the information over to Fargo. We'll only analyze evidence on specific request from him and only he can prove that it will lead him to the killer more quickly."

"But don't say that to him, right?"

Horatio's hair glinted gold under Walter's downward gaze in the near noon time sun. He knew that his boss was smiling. "I don't think there's any need to point out that we have something else on our plate that we consider more important."

"I'll get this done and see you in the lab."

Horatio drove the block over to the lot. He found Detective Fargo pacing around the paths. "Have you found anything more?"

"Zip. Your men took just about everything."

"Once we look for any trace, if you like, I'll see that they hand it to you."

The surprise on Fargo's face was plain. "Well, that is very obliging of you, Caine. I always thought you people liked to run the show when it came to evidence."

Horatio raised himself up straight and put his hands to his waist. He turned his head to look to the street and raised his chin ever so slightly. "Not necessarily. We are more than happy to share what we have with the police force." He silently added 'this time.' He had no intention of this being a precedent of future procedures. But then Fargo would learn that eventually. For now, he wanted his team to be free from this case and working on the kidnapping.

"Walter Simmons found the primary scene and is photographing it now. He is going to follow it as far back as he can. If he finds where the girl came from, I'll let you know and you can take it from there."

Horatio was fairly certain that Fargo would take this as his right. Most of MDPD detectives didn't know or care that Horatio and his lab team were the most powerful force in the building, credited with more solves than all of the other units put together. It was only after officers in MDPD worked with Horatio that they learned he was a force unto himself and that he backed his team completely.

This time, however, Horatio had to remove the rest of the crimes from his list and concentrate on returning his four month old god child to Calleigh's arms. He only hoped that Fargo wouldn't feel the need of having every little bit of evidence analyzed later down the line. Little did Horatio realize that, later, this would bite him in the butt.

"Hey, Detective, where did you go?"

"Tovi did you stay here all of this time?"

"Yeah, I wanted you to walk me home."

"Why is that, son? You aren't lost."

"I just do, is all. Aren't you a policeman? Aren't you supposed to help little kids and stuff?"

"Well, yes but only if they are in trouble. Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Tovi dropped his head. "No."

"Then, as a police officer, I can't do what you ask. I have duties to attend to and if you don't need help, I have to leave."

Tovi sighed in frustration and raised his face up again. "Can't you help me just because you want to be nice?"

Horatio did what he usually did in cases like this; he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a business card. "Tovi, I want you to have this card. Now, if you should ever be in trouble, you can call me. Can you read the phone number?"

The boy snorted. "Of course! I can read and everything. I'm eight, you know."

This was one of those times when Horatio wished he had time for this kind of child. There was something in the boy that was calling out for him to do something but he didn't know what. "Good, now that you have my card, we're buddies and that means I will help you whenever you get into some real trouble." He laid his hand on the boy's thin shoulder. "For now, I have to go and tend to police business and help some people that are really in trouble."

"Yeah, right."

Horatio noticed that in spite of the boy's derisive tone, he stuffed the card into the back pocket of his ragged jeans.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Ryan, have you had a chance to go through any of the pictures or records from the mall?"

"I finished with the pictures half an hour ago. There wasn't much there. Not many people want to record their shopping. No one had any video. I even melded what pictures there were of that area together and haven't come up with anything so far."

"What about the recordings?"

"I got five DVDs with eight camera views. Each have a half hour before the kidnap and after on each camera. I'm just ending the first camera which shows the best view of where Calleigh and Frank were. Wouldn't you know it, they had pushed the stroller just out of camera range when they stopped but I did catch something."

Looking at his notes, Ryan reset the DVD.

"This is where they come into view. You can see them fine. Calleigh is looking at something in the window and Frank is just behind her. Now watch. They have the stroller to their left in one of the few blind spots of the camera views. They're looking ahead and just to the right in the window. You can see Calleigh's grasp on the handlebar has gone a bit lax and that is why she didn't notice the ever so slight jiggle right about…there. Did you see it?"

"I did, Mr. Wolfe. I'm guessing that this is the point where little Jake was taken."

"That's what I think because a few seconds later Calleigh goes to look under the stroller hood. Remember, she said she heard Frank, Jr. crying. So, that gives us the time and now I can go through all the other cameras and see if I can find anyone suspicious in the area just before and just after."

"Natalia should be in soon and I want her with you to help. The same with Eric and Walter."

"Who's going to be with us from police?"

"Yelina. I've sent her over to talk with Calleigh and Frank."

There was a slight pause before Ryan answered. "Yeah, good."

Horatio thoughtfully walked out of the audio-visual lab. Ryan and Yelina had kept their involvement together so deeply under cover he had almost forgotten about it. He had occasionally worked with Yelina since his breakup with her but not recently. When he had learned about Ryan's involvement with her, he was, at first, taken aback. Ryan was younger than Yelina by about twelve or so years. Then as he considered it, the idea seemed right. Ryan had grown as a man and, though younger in years than Horatio, through trial and tribulation was certainly on a level footing in maturity. Yelina unquestionably needed an equal and one without the baggage of the Caine family. Apparently, things were going to well between them, and they brought none of it to the job. Since Tripp would be barred from investigating his own case, Yelina was the best choice to take over as lead officer for the police. Horatio was not worried about Ryan and Yelina or even himself. It was one more nuance to the dynamics of the team.

In the hall, Eric called out, "Hey, H, I can start on what we got from the two scenes on the girl."

Walter chimed in, "I didn't get anything more on the trail from where the girl came. I just knew from the marks on the primary that she was running fast from the east end of the street. She fell hard enough to leave blood and skin. She could have come from a house or any of six or seven apartment complexes."

Looking up through his tightly knit red brows, Horatio said, "Put all the evidence in a box and hand it to me. I'm going to turn it all over to Detective Fargo. If he needs any analysis, he'll have to go to the night crew. We have one case and one case only for now."

Both Eric and Walter's faces turned hard as their mouths set. They nodded in unison.

Eric asked, "What can we do?"

Using the terse language of the team, Horatio stared down at his black soft soled shoes as he replied, "AV lab."

Ten minutes later, Detective Fargo looked up from his desk at the large box of sealed and initialed evidence bags. "What's this?"

"The evidence we gathered from the girl's two scenes."

"And why are you giving it to me? Aren't you supposed to analyze it and give me the results?"

"There's a brief report of primary findings in the box. You would have to do the leg work in any case whether we analyze the evidence or not. If you can't get any further on the case without having the evidence looked at more closely, then ask the night crew in CSI to do some analysis."

Fargo's face showed his growing incredulity with each of the red head's words. "And may I ask what the occasion is for you bowing out of the case?"

"Unfortunately we have another case which takes precedence over everything else."

As if a puzzle piece had fallen into place in his mind, Fargo raised his eyebrows and tilted his head while he pursed his lips briefly. "Ah, so that's why Salas took off."

Swallowing dryly, Horatio couldn't keep his head from moving slightly in annoyance at the man's slight grin. People in both departments knew of the Caine-Salas connection and everyone had their own idea as to what it was about. Before he said something he would regret, he turned and left the MDPD Homicide division.

Upstairs, in the audio visual lab, he found everyone looking at the same image displayed on the various screens.

"Have you found something?"

Following the protocol of giving leadership to the first person assigned the task, everyone looked to Ryan.

"Nat found something. See this guy here with the bag? The cameras first catch him with no bag heading through the north entry and here you see him with a bag going through the doorway to the service hall. It's only about thirty feet from where the stroller was. You can tell there's a weight in the bag from the way it hangs on the straps. The image is captured here and then here as he goes down the stairs and then as he's come out the doors just before everything is locked down." Ryan points at each change of the image to emphasize his point.

"And he has no bag as he enters?"

Ryan smiled. "Exactly. We first got him entering here, and see, he's like a normal shopper except for the jacket. Look how it's all zipped up and kind of bulged. We think he's got the gym bag inside the jacket."

Horatio examined the view of the man casually entering the mall for a full ten seconds. "I'd agree."

"We only have this one and the one just before he enters the hallway with a face. Both are pretty blurry. I have some software cleaning it up now."

"How soon will it be ready to be put through the facial recognition database?"

"First I have to let one program fill in the pixels to get a clearer image. Then each view is of different parts of his face. The top part of his face is obscured by the bill of his hat at the entry and we only get a side view as he looks over his shoulder just before he runs into the service hall. I have to put it together and let some software figure out how he looks face on view. Another hour or so should do it. I want to get every pixel just so and then get this bastard."

"Good. Meanwhile, I want you all to go over the subsequent footage of the crowd around Calleigh and Frank. Look for anything out of place."

Ryan started handing out discs. "I made copies of different camera angles and times relevant to our needs. Now everyone will have their own."

Ryan looked up to receive the nod from Horatio only to find himself alone with the team again.

Out in the hallway, beneath the dark corbelled ceiling that was the central area where all glass walls of the individual labs met, Horatio took a moment to gather himself. Any time a team member was the victim of a crime, he was far more upset than he let on. Although technically none of the members of the team were among his personal family, the reality was they were more like family than he had ever grown up with, including his dead brother. He often went through this process at this place in the lab. Centering himself in the midpoint of the place he regarded as the temple of his whole purpose in life only made sense. He was drawn here not only for this reason but it was an excellent vantage point to see the entire lab. Even now, besides the major players of the lab in the AV lab, he could see Valera running tests on bits from another case, Travers at his table comparing the color of a liquid in a vial against the color in another vial, and Alexx Woods walking swiftly down the hall in his direction with a scolding look.

"What is this about you turning that sweet little girl over to the police?" Alexx took proprietary care of the people who were laid on her examiner's table.

"I apologize for not calling you, Alexx. We had to turn the case over to police. Calleigh's son, little Jake, was kidnapped and now that is our only concern."

"Wha... Oh Lord!" She laid a delicately fingered hand on Horatio's arm. "Is there anything I can do?"

"I'm afraid not. It happened a couple of hours ago. Frank and she are at home now with Frank, Jr. We have all of the airways covered with the news."

"Is this a ransom case, do you think?"

"No, I don't. Ransom cases usually don't target police officers. If someone has something against a police officer, they go after the officer in a more direct manner. No, it's more likely someone who wanted a child for themselves or worse, for someone else."

"Do you have anything yet?"

Horatio told her of the sighting on the security recordings.

"I hope it's as simple as IDing him and picking them up."

Horatio stared at the floor and did not answer. Alexx knew why; the likelihood of this going simply was unlikely. A sound from Horatio's pocket woke them both from their sad conclusion. Before the lieutenant could excuse himself to take the call, Alexx, knowing the drill, had turned and was walking back to the elevator. Their past together often did not require amenities between them.

"Yelina."

"I just got done talking with Calleigh and Frank. I wanted to call to see if you had any more information before I left."

"We spotted a man on the security recordings that we think is the kidnapper. He is carrying a large gym bag as he is exiting. We caught him coming in with no bag, but what appears to be a bulge in his jacket."

"So he was carrying the bag folded up in his jacket indicating it was empty. Then there was something in it when he left."

"It appears that way."

"Did you get a look at his face?"

"We'll be running it on facial recognition as soon as we can."

"I hope we can find him."

"As we all do. Were Frank or Calleigh able to recall anything else?"

"No, Horatio. I think it's still a little early for recall."

"It was worth a try."

"They both know they're in shock and they know the routine. If either of them thinks of anything, they'll call you."

"I know they will."

"I am bringing in the stroller."

Horatio shifted his position as he heard the words. "You think there might be trace?"

"Calleigh suggested it. She said to apologize for not letting you take it at the mall."

Horatio felt amazement at the team's second in command's presence of mind even under these circumstances.

"Tell her no worries and I'll see you when you get here."

Horatio heard no reply except for the click.

Slowly folding his phone and sliding it into his pocket, he raised his chin to look at the sunlight being reflected from the slanted glass windowed walls. His entire team was on the case like clockwork. He was sure that whoever had made the dire mistake of taking Calleigh's child was going to get the surprise of his life and soon. That creep's world was going to crash around his ears. If that was all, if little Jake (named after Frank's brother, not after one of Calleigh's former boyfriends) was alright, the kidnapper would be lucky that his fate was going to be to lose his world. If, on the other hand, he had caused any harm to that child, had so much as removed a hair, he would wish he could die for several hours before his desire was slowly granted. This was more than being a police officer; this was the serious responsibility of being a godfather.

"Horatio, we have something else."

Ordinarily the commander of the Crime Scene Investigation lab stood still while news was brought to him. This time, his feet moved on their own, carrying him to the AV lab to hear the development.

"What have we got, Mr. Wolfe?"

"Nat picked something up on the bag the kidnapper is carrying."

He looked to the bright eyed woman.

"I thought I recognized the make of the bag and cleaned up the image as much as I could. I know the brand and I know it's a knockoff."

"How can you tell?"

"It looks like an Ogio bag. I use that brand because I like the support straps and the fact that it breathes. To get the proper support in the bag, the stitching on the outside is really solid. The stitches on this one can barely be seen. Also, the logo patch is fuzzy, like it was smeared. No brand name gets sold here looking like that. These companies ship their mistakes to third world countries."

"Okay, but aren't there are all kinds of places for the knockoffs, including online?"

Natalia beamed her 'I'm 'way ahead of you' smile. "These companies fight this battle day in and day out. I already have a call in to the Ogio security office to see if there are any particular outlets they are aware of in our area. They also keep track of the online sources and where those goods go."

Nat's phone sang out. She removed it from her lab jacket pocket and almost sent the call to voice mail. "Wow! It's Ogio's security office."

The tall woman stepped out to the hall but returned making scribbling motions with her hand. Ryan pulled out a small tablet of paper from the inside pocket of his grey jacket and Walter pulled a pen from his shirt pocket.

Five minutes later, pocketing the phone, Natalia's white teeth gleamed against her olive skin. "They gave me three physical places they constantly ask the police to raid. No one in the Miami area has bought from the online stores carrying the knockoffs in several weeks. Of course there are new one popping up all the time but these would be a place to start."

As a matter of habit, Horatio reached out his hand to receive the paper from detective Boa Vista. He looked at it briefly.

"Walter, you take this one on Brickell, Ryan, you take the one on Flagler and 37th, and Eric, the one by Oleta Park."

The three men, from average build to massive, walked down the hall to the elevators.

"Ms. Boa Vista, thank you for your quick thinking. I don't think any of us would have caught those details. In a while, Yelina will be bringing Calleigh's stroller in. Calleigh thought there might be some kind of trace on it."

"I'd like to say I had thought of that. Calleigh is incredible, isn't she?"

Horatio nodded slowly in complete agreement.

"So, Yelina is going to be on the case?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad we're keeping it in the family."

Horatio was about to nod again when Yelina came through the elevator doors dragging a black bag with wheels sticking out of one end.

Natalia pointed to a door before the curly haired Columbian could pass it. Horatio and she nodded to Yelina as they met her in the trace lab.

"I already dusted the handle for prints." Yelina handed a bag with broad cellophane tape laid on white note cards. "I used an emery board and a pencil to make some powder and packing tape to lift the prints. I don't think they are anyone's except Frank's and Calleigh's but, just in case."

"Did Frank get it into the garbage bag?"

Yelina nodded in her sad way. "With Calleigh telling him every step to make to preserve any possibility of evidence. I don't think he was nearly as unhappy with the directions as he was to let go of the stroller."

A moment of silence showed that all had observed the reluctance of a parent to let go of the thing a kidnapped victim had last touched.

Natalia snapped out of it first. "Well, okay, let me get at this. If there's anything, I'll find it."

"If you need help, call on Valera." Horatio's voice carried the quiet rumble of command.

"Don't worry, I'll get everyone in the lab in on this if it will get things done faster."

Feeling assured by Natalia's words, Horatio escorted Yelina out into the hall.

"Where is the rest of the team?" she asked.

Horatio explained what Natalia had found out from the Ogio security people. "Anyone admitting to recognizing a customer is slim but it's all we have."

After a moment of quiet, both assessing what more could be done from the point of their positions, Horatio cocked his head and asked, "How are Calleigh and Frank doing?"

Yelina's mournful voice was heavier than usual. "As well as victims with a kidnapped child can do. Calleigh feels guilty and Frank won't take his eyes from Frank, Jr. They both know what we are doing but they really don't know what to do with themselves."

"I'm going to stop by and talk with them."

"Good, the more company they have, the better for now. I'll stay and do paperwork. I'll call you if anyone comes up with anything."

Horatio almost turned to leave. "By the way, you and Ryan…"

Yelina raised her beautifully shaped eyebrows over hazel eyes, holding her mouth almost open as if in inquiry. Seeing Horatio suddenly duck his head, and look off to the side and down as if he didn't know what to say, she finally said, "Yes, Ryan and I are together."

Horatio raised his hands to just below his waist level, one playing with the cuticle on the forefinger of the other. "I know, I had heard. I just wanted to say," he paused briefly, "I'm happy for you."

His voice had become as quiet as Yelina remembered when they were together in bed that night that seemed like a life time ago. It was a personal sound that she didn't hear so much as feel, even in the vast space of the lab hall. "I'm glad to hear it."

Horatio abruptly turned and walked to the elevator.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Two hours later, Horatio knocked on the bright orange door.

"Horatio, what a surprise! Is anything wrong?"

Looking down into Solange's shiny brown eyes, Horatio did not quite shake his head no. "Just thought I would take the chance you were home and not busy. I called but only got your voice mail."

"I'm not busy, come on in. I just got home myself and don't have anyone booked for here this evening." The woman, about ten years younger than her guest, stood aside to let him enter. Inside, he removed his shoes by the front entrance and left them in the rack. He removed his black jacket and put it on the hangar she had thoughtfully provided on the coat rack beside the door. He put his gold badge and his pistol in the pocket, transferring the cell into his slacks pocket. That done, he walked over to the couch and fell back, his hands slack at his side.

"I'm so glad to see you. You look beat! How was your day?" She walked around to the couch and curled up beside the figure. He raised his hand to put it loosely around the compact woman's shoulders. She raised herself up as if to receive a kiss on the cheek and then looked disappointed. "What? Not a kiss, nothing? You too tired?"

Horatio turned slightly, reached over with his free hand to gently take her chin and brought it up to his. He kissed her gently on the lips. "Sorry. Is that better? Yes, I'm tired and I've had a hell of a day. I don't even know how long I can stay."

"What's up? Can you talk about it?" Solange had been dating Horatio and been a sometime employee of the medical examiner's office long enough to know that police couldn't always talk about what they were dealing with on the job.

"I can say that one of Frank and Calleigh's twins was kidnapped."

Horatio could feel the muscular woman next to him pull back in her disbelief and freeze.

"That's awful! I—I just don't even know what to say."

Horatio shrugged and that turned into a gigantic stretch. "We haven't got much so far. Everyone on the team is on it." He yawned prodigiously.

"What time was it done?"

"About ten this morning."

Solange hopped off the couch. "I bet you haven't stopped since it happened not even for lunch. Okay, stressed out and needing food. I've got just the thing."

"I'm not really hungry."

The dark haired woman stopped on her way to the kitchen. "Yeah, but who knows when you'll have the chance to eat again. You're working on fumes right now and are too worked up to even know it. Sit back and relax, I'll be right back with a plate."

Horatio knew from experience that this woman, who he found to be very attractive in an unusual, independent kind of way, never took no for an answer the first time around. If nothing else, she would wear him down with her logic. He was too tired to argue back right now.

When Solange returned after ten busy minutes, she wasn't surprised to find Horatio still sitting up but with his eyes closed.

Sweeping a pillow from the end of the couch, she sat down, and watched the brilliant red-gold head pop up, his eyes alert. She put a glass on the table in front of the couch.

"Here, everything is good calories, and helps combat stress." She handed him one of the plates she was holding.

Horatio first appreciated the attractiveness of the small spread. Thick cuts of avocado were wrapped in doubled over slices of deli-cut meat which were held in place by toothpicks. Several orange wedges were laid out in a fan with a generous pile of almonds at the narrow end. He smiled at it and at the glass of milk.

"The meat is low fat turkey. I wish I had fresh but this will do."

He admired the layout for about three seconds before picking up the first section of orange and sliding it into his mouth. "Indeed it will." He noticed her meal was a sandwich with lettuce and tomato and more meat.

Noticing his glance, she explained, "I had an active day so I need more protein. The bread is my favorite whole grain that I get from the health food market down the road. Did you want some too?"

"Maybe later if I have time."

"Sure," she answered around the bite she had in her mouth.

A few minutes later, when both had finished, Solange invited him to relax a while longer. Several weeks earlier, they found they both enjoyed him lying out on the couch with his head in her lap while she stroked his hair and forehead. She always invited him to tell her about his day and he usually turned the conversation to making plans for some future evening out or asking her about her day. Since she had already heard about his day, she had immediately launched into a talk about her day. She told him of one male client who constantly made advances to her even with his wife sitting in the next room. One client was a woman who would never be pleased with her services and yet kept making appointments for the next week. Finally, she had two clients, a man and a woman, in the same house so there was no break. "I mean, it's easier to not have to drag my table in and out of the car but not as good as having an hour or so break going from one house to the next."

Horatio's response was slow and even breathing.

Solange smiled, satisfied that she had bored the man to restful sleep. Who knows when he would have to be out the door or when he would be able to sleep again?

She reached over to the side table to pick up her mail. She sorted through until she found a piece that interested her. First, she ran her tongue across the top of the envelope. Then, moving slowly, she stuck a finger under the flap and pried it under until she could tear it open. The moistened paper parted soundlessly and evenly. She pulled out several pieces of paper with scribbled hand writing. After reading it, she slowly folded the paper and put it back into the casing. Ten minutes later, when Horatio's cell called for attention, the massage therapist was still absorbed in thought.

As alert as if he had been awake for the previous fifteen minutes, Horatio answered his phone without rising. "Yes Ryan. The mini mall at Flagler and Douglas, alright, I'll meet you there in about twenty-five." He was rising to his feet as he spoke.

Solange followed, grabbed the jacket and held it out. "I hope the lead works out."

Horatio slipped into his jacket, his eyes carrying a look of blue steel. "It's a step in the process." His hand automatically placed the gun and the badge in their places on his belt.

Solange waited for the quick peck he usually administered as he left her.

It turned into more than she expected. He took her fully into his arms and held her close as he sometimes did at the end of a date together. She felt his tongue tasting her lips his mouth working at hers with a gentle, sweet urgency. She knew he wanted to elevate their relationship to a sexual level and she was determined not to go any faster than her sense told her to. He seemed like a great guy and, according to her cousin Natalia, he was as honest and true a man as she had ever known. Her own background with men, however, had been less than stellar. She fell in love too fast, jumped into bed to please the man, and was left in the dust before she even realized she had stirred it up. Now, here he was just dropping by casually, had not made a move on her and suddenly she was being thrilled down to her toes.

He pulled back from the hungry lip lock. "Drop that one jerk as a client. Nothing is worth that kind of treatment."

Solange pulled back in surprise. "I thought you were asleep."

His eyes briefly twinkled. "Nope." Horatio opened the door and left taking long strides to get to his car.

Solange stood at the door and called out. "Thanks for the recommendation; I'll take it under advisement."

Horatio was smiling as he got into his red TR-4. He knew that kiss had probably overstepped the bounds Solange had set between them. He had really needed it though. To tell the truth, he wanted more from her, wanted to carry her off to bed when he arrived, not have dinner. She had asked him to hold off and so he did, yet, her talk of that client had disturbed him. The life of a massage therapist, working so close to people, one on one, wasn't always pleasant. He sometimes wondered how many female medical doctors had problems with their male patients. On the whole, Solange seemed to enjoy what she did and had only once been in harm's way from a client. That time, she had gotten out on her own. Even though she did not need protection from him, talk of that client, made him want to give it. Not being able to stay and stand guard, the wear and tear of the day, his emotions had almost gotten the better of him. He wondered if she got the message.

Standing at the open door, watching the sports car drive away, Solange savored the feeling of the kiss. It was different from other, end of a great date kisses. It had turned her on, puckered her nipples and made the place behind her Venus mound quiver. Wow! How long would she be able to hold back? How long would he put up with being tested? It seemed like either choice was the wrong one. She backed up and closed the door. Well, for now, that kiss would hold her. She could only hope it would hold him.

"What have we got Mr. Wolfe?"

They were just starting their walk between the mobile booths set up in the medium sized outdoor mall parking lot. Lights around each booth had started coming on in the fading evening light. What stores were open in the surrounding buildings already had lights on. The tinny sound of mariachi music blared over ancient speakers. Horatio could tell that as evening fell, as well as temperatures, the crowds would grow.

Ryan was explaining, "Well, that lead over on 37th denied ever selling fake Ogio, of course. Then, when I asked about some other knockoffs he had hanging up in plain sight, he volunteered some information about a guy at this place. He told me he knew this guy does sell what we're after."

"Good. Where is it supposed to be?"

"Central booth near the closed up leather goods store."

The two men looked at the store signs above the covered walkway until they saw the fading words, Leather Belts and Boots. Their eyes dropped to the booths spaced evenly from one another to allow as many customers as possible to gather around. None of the booths were marked but each had their wares hung high for plain view. One had bags in several sizes marked Ogio.

The man inside the booth was busy hanging another bag, his back turned to the two men.

Getting his attention, Wolfe held up the enhanced photo of the man from the mall. "You know this man?"

The man took disapproving note of the badges. "I don't know. What's he done?"

"He kidnapped a child. Now do you know him or not?"

Horatio spread his legs and raised his hands to set behind his badge and his gun. "If you don't know him, we take you to the station until you do and we confiscate every fake bag here. If you do know him, you tell us straight and now and we forget we saw brand knockoffs…for now."

"Hey, I don't want no part of kidnapping. Yeah, he's bought maybe four bags or so, I dunno. He comes with another guy and they hold out their hands like measuring and say they want bags where air can get in. I know the Ogio junk here is like the real stuff and breathes so gym stuff don't go sour. It falls apart fast but, hey, for the price, it's okay stuff."

Ryan put up a hand. "Enough with the sales pitch. So, you ever notice which way these men head for when they leave?"

The man bent his head to one side and scratched at his stubble bearded jaw. "Well, I don't really know, you know? I mean, I get too busy counting the money." The music of his Latin accent got heavier as he spoke.

Horatio started walking around the booth. He made a motion with his hand while keeping another on his weapon at his side. "Open the back door. You're coming with me."

The man put his hands up palm forward as if to push Horatio back. "Uh, hey, wait! Uh, now I remember! They always walked off that way!" He pointed east.

Horatio took his hand from his holster and stepped to the side counter and, speaking very quietly, said, "Here is my card. Now, if they show up again within the next twenty-four hours, you are going to call me. If you don't, I'll know about it and you will be on my bad side for a long, long time."

The merchant saw something in Horatio's face he didn't like. Taking the card, he slid it into the back pocket of his jeans and nodded ever so slightly. His eyes rolled around searching the background behind his antagonist. "I don't want no trouble. I'll call."

Horatio paused, staring into the man's face to be sure there was no misunderstanding about the message he was giving to the man.

Meanwhile, Ryan was on the phone calling Walter and then Eric. "Hey H, they came up with nothing."

Slowly backing off from the man, Horatio turned and strolled to Ryan and then past him saying over his shoulder, "Take all of the Ogio bags from that booth."

Ryan walked up to the open sided cubicle. He held out his hand. "You heard the man, all of them."

Looking like he wanted to object but didn't dare, he unhooked the two small ones hanging from the side poles and the three larger ones from the roof.

"The ones in the box under the counter too."

The inner points of the man's eyebrows nearly met his hairline, while he did as he was told. "They only took one size," he pleaded.

Ryan didn't answer as he took the box and the rest of the bags. Falling in beside the taller man, Horatio took the box from him.

Ryan said, "It sounds like this is as good as we're going to get. I guess we go back to the lab."

The two men shouldered their way through the growing evening crowds.

Horatio paused beside the Hummer that Ryan had driven. "Yeah, I think so." His eyes flicked back and forth as if searching for something he couldn't quite place.

"H, you've got an idea, don't you?"

Looking sideways at Ryan, he squinted ever so slightly. "It's only a thought right now. I'll meet you at the lab. Call Walter and tell him to meet us there. I'll call Eric."

Forty minutes later, Horatio was talking with Alexx Woods.

"Now Horatio, you handed that case to Fargo; you know I'm not supposed to talk to you about this girl."

The morgue lighting emphasized the doctor's Asian caste eyes and her classic cheek bones.

The two were facing each other over the covered body on the cleaning table. Alex had just finished her autopsy. She was about to have the body transferred to one of the refrigerated vaults before cleaning up and heading home for the evening.

Although Horatio's chin was close to his chest, his raised eyebrows showed he hoped for an answer.

Alexx continued, "You don't know where you got this information; it sure wasn't from me. All I'll do is say that yes, this poor child, aged something like fifteen years old has given birth at least twice. That means she had probably just reached puberty when she was pregnant the first time. She wasn't pregnant at the time of her death, nor was there any sign of semen or recent rape in the vaginal kit. I can say she shows scarring from previous sexual encounters. COD is severe internal bleeding caused by battering to the head and midsection. Some of the mess they brought in from the sidewalk was what she had thrown up during the beating, part of an egg salad sandwich. I think she got it from a garbage can or something because it was old and filled with salmonella. If the beating hadn't killed her, her weakened condition from near starvation and the salmonella might have."

Horatio stared down at the broken visage. The girl had been blond and he would have bet she was blue eyed too.

"Now I hope that's all you want because, baby, that's all you're going to get."

"Thank you, Alexx. I might be on a wild goose chase."

Alexx gave her friend a toothy grin. "Well, even wild geese can be caught and they're mighty good eating so invite me to the feast if you get it."

Horatio pushed through the double doors of the basement room below the MDPD offices. "If I do, you get second dibs on the best part."

As the doors swung closed and open and closed, Alexx shook her head muttering to herself. "Second dibs? We'll just see about that." She smiled again.

The air circulation in the elevator cleared the odor of the morgue disinfectant and other smells from Horatio's clothing before the doors opened on the third floor. The ride had settled his mind as much as it could be considering what he had heard and seen down there.

"Natalia, anything on the stroller?"

As if expecting him at that moment, the brown hair flipped over her shoulders as she turned. "One foreign hair, a fingerprint and what I think is a mist of saliva."

"You mean he sneezed?"

"Or coughed. It isn't much. Valera is trying to get something from the hair. I think if we can compare DNA between the two and get a match, then maybe a fingerprint, no matter how partial we'll have the guy dead to rights."

"Keep working on it. Thank you."

Natalia didn't even bother replying. She knew her boss was already walking down the hall.

"Yelina, call Calleigh and see if she remembers anyone touching the front of the stroller in the last twenty-four hours. Yes, friend or not."

He was not surprised to find Ryan, Walter and Eric at the large evidence table. The room glowed from the lighting under the frosted six by four foot glass top. Pieces of Ogio bags were spread out in front of each of the team members. "Find anything yet?"

Eric started. "I have a recent picture of the twins and I put it through a program where I got the approximate size in length, thickness and breadth of little Jake."

Walter continued, "He'd fit in this size bag with only a little wiggle room. When it was zipped though, I bet he kicked up a fuss. We tore this one apart to get an idea of the strength of the stitching. Some sections were fine and others wouldn't have held a struggling kitten."

Ryan paused before adding, "Even if he were sleeping and breathing quietly, there isn't all that much air in these bags anyway. There's enough circulation so damp gym clothes don't go rancid in half a day in the Miami heat, but he began to get frightened and cry then he'd be in trouble."

"And we haven't gotten a ransom call yet, have we?" Horatio concluded.

Eric sighed and stuck his generous lower lip out a bit. "Yeah, nothing so far. Hopefully we can figure that they want Jake for something else and wanted to keep him alive."

"So, we have to think in terms of getting him someplace inside so it would be safe to take him out of the bag." Ryan had taken the same stance as Horatio, his left arm around his waist, his right elbow propped at the top of the upturned palm while played with his lower lip with his thumb and forefinger.

Walter agreed, "Yeah, I'm thinking this is a kidnap to sell the kid to someone. If so, they don't want the merchandise ruined."

Horatio made a gesture with his head and headed to the AV lab. "Let's take a look at a radius of, oh say ten minutes' drive from the mall. It might have taken five minutes to get him downstairs and to a car."

Walter spoke as they all walked. "I bet they wouldn't want to take the time to take him out of the bag and put him into a car seat. They probably just put him down on the floor. That might affect the drive time."

Eric tapped a few keys on the central control keyboard to pull up a Miami map and quickly zoomed in on the mall location. He asked, "Anybody got any clue how far ten minutes' drive from the mall is?"

Horatio stepped forward and verified the thought he had been carrying for the last hour. He pointed to the area where the girl had been found that morning. "Would you say that this is a ten to fifteen minute drive?"

Eric nodded. "Yeah, but why there?"

"I have a hunch."

The three men, Ryan, Eric and Walter looked at each other silently. A hunch? Since when did Horatio go on hunches? He was all about the evidence.

"Horatio." Natalia stood at the door beaming. "I got match on the DNA and the print and an ID with an address. Marquez Soledad is who you're looking for. His photo matches with what we got on the DVD image."

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The location was set between East and West Little Havana just off of Flagler. No one was surprised to find the apartment empty as well as the ones above and next to it, six in all.

Inside, once the uniformed officers had broken through the doors, Horatio took stock of what little was left. Upstairs, the three apartment's living rooms had been divided with makeshift walls made of particle board and framing into three smaller rooms. Each cell had a metal cot that bolted to the floor. The two bedrooms in each place all contained from three to four mattresses on the floors. In one room, just above a mattress in the corner, brown and green spots showed on the wall. The bathroom window for that room showed it had been opened recently and then closed and nailed shut. Downstairs, the bedrooms in two of the apartments were nurseries with evidence of five or six cribs in each. Only parts of one crib were left.

Walter's terse comment of, "This is a lot of babies," was silently agreed with by all.

Empty cardboard boxes of various brands and sizes of disposable diapers strewn around verified the thought.

Natalia remaied inside to take biological samples and pieces of the mattresses upstairs.

Outside, clearing his nose of the smell of musk and filth, Horatio stood in the glare of the Hummer's headlights, his hands at his waist. "Where is the landlord or the manager?"

Eric appeared with a man in tow. "Here's the manager, H. He says he doesn't know anything. He says everyone was here this morning."

Horatio looked to one side at the ground and shook his head. "Why doesn't anyone know anything?"

"Buenas noches, Senior," he began affably to the man with a dinner napkin stuck in his collar. Then he switched to English. "How many of these apartments were occupied this morning?" He waived his hand at the building that held four different addresses, all empty at the moment.

The man's eyes widened. "All of the people are gone now? Maybe they went to a movie, no?"

"Did you know makeshift stairs had been built inside from the ground floor to the apartments above on each side and that each on both floors were connected with holes through the walls?"

"What? No! Let me see!"

He tried to get past the lieutenant but Eric held him back.

Horatio read the man's reaction as genuine. "You never inspected the premises?"

The man splayed the fingers on his palms up hands and raised his shoulders to his ears. "They pay the rent, they never make trouble. They never say they have trouble with plumbing or anything. Most of these places, I only go inside when something breaks. Many things break with buildings this age. Dios Mio! If what you say is true, what am I going to tell my boss?"

"Right now, you won't have to tell him anything. This is a crime scene and no one can enter until we release it."

He looked at Eric. "Let him go back to his dinner."

At that moment, he thought a silent thank you for the meal he had had with Solange. Then he called out, "Yelina, we're going to have to do some knock and talk. We need to find out where these people might have gone, where this Marquez Soledad goes other than here."

"I'll take Ryan. Walter with his pidgin French can understand the lingo well enough and Eric will have no problem."

Yelina knew that language was one of the few skills lacking in Ryan's makeup. The thought made her smile at the idea of how many other skills she had discovered in him. All of them mixed with kindness and vulnerability and an incredible sweetness he rarely showed to the rest of the world.

Two hours later, all they had were leads and none were definite.

Yelina began her report with, "For all we know, little Jake has been transferred to the new parents, if that is what this was about."

"Yes," Horatio replied slowly with a slight hiss in his low growl. We have had all the roads, seaways and airways out of Miami closed to anyone with an infant since fifteen minutes after the snatch so now, we only have the entire city to search. Let's hope they haven't transferred him yet and if they have, the new parents are laying low somewhere.

Eric led them to the Hummer that was equipped with audio visual equipment. "I input all of the information we got. Of course, everyone has pointed to all four corners of the map and every part of the city including MDPD jail." Tapping a few keys brought up the map with the apartment in the center and then red dots marking the places people had named as possible locations for the occupants of the six apartments.

"I'm not sure I got it all but one woman said she was pals with the woman who seemed to be in charge of the gang. She said she thinks this one had relatives or maybe really good friends over on Watson Street. I know that area. They have some really old houses there that have survived since the 1920's. That's also one of the depressed areas and so I bet there are empty houses." Walter reached over the shoulders of almost everyone to point out where Watson Street was.

Horatio, in front, had put his foot up on the bumper of the large vehicle and leaned his elbow on his knee. "One man I talked with spoke of a warehouse near the airport. He thought that Marquez was trying to get in with a gang that hangs out around there. He didn't remember the name of the gang but if I miss my guess it's the No Somos Angeles, We're No Angels. I've heard of them. They wouldn't think twice about putting up babies for sale and more."

Ryan brought up the obvious as he pointed at the map. "What about the rest of these places?"

"We take our chances that these two are the most likely. The rest look like locations a kid of Hispanic background would hang around just to pass the time with friends or look for girls."

"Eric and I will take Watson Street and Yelina, you take Ryan and Walter to the warehouse address. I'll call up two SWAT teams to meet you and us."

Without waiting for response or adding what everyone knew already, that time was of the essence, he stood and walked away, his phone to ear.

Either address was no more than twenty minutes away from the apartments so Horatio knew that Yelina and the rest were arriving near the warehouse at about the same time as he was stretching his long legs down to the street from the Hummer. He looked down the dark tree lined road. From all appearances, half of the ancient houses were empty but he knew that appearances could be deceiving. What few houses had lights on, had several cars parked either in the driveways or on the street in front. He would bet anything that some of the houses with no lights had cars parked in back. Driving down the street with no lights before he parked, he could have sworn he saw brief flashes of dim light in the windows of at least two of the homes. Not given much to imagining things, he knew what he saw. That meant the houses were occupied, but whether by the people he sought or, just a likely, drug cookers they would have to find out.

He walked around the corner to meet up with the SWAT team, the uniformed officers who could be spared from the apartment site, and Eric. He listed the two houses he had seen lights in and watched as the SWAT men moving like shadows silently heel toed in step with each other down the street and then divided between the two houses that stood next to each other.

A few minutes later, a man from each house returned.

"Baby cries on the bottom floor. I'm not sure but I think I heard sounds from upstairs."

"My house has stairs from the top floor. No visuals but I heard talk while I was up there. Down I heard sounds in the kitchen."

"How many babies?"

The man's face was angry. "More than a few, more than there should have been for a normal family."

Horatio raised his cell. "Yelina, we have them. How fast can you make it?"

"All we got was some angry No Somos Angeles and no Marquez so we're on our way now. We'll be there in ten."

Fifteen minutes later, with SWAT in place at the front and back door of each house and the second floor entrance on the one, the signal for entry was given.

The fingers counted down from three, two, one; four battering rams hit the front and back doors in one explosive sound. The men shouting "SWAT, MDPD" ran in, their laser eyed rifles pointing everywhere at once as they marched in, and split up. Every time they saw a figure, they shouted, "Down! Down on your face! Now!"

Some occupants did as they were told, others ran in various directions. The women ran for the ground floor rooms off the living room or up the stairs, the young men headed for windows and doors.

Knocking the people down as they warily ran up the stairs, the men clad in Kevlar jackets and black helmets shouted, "Coming up!"

Running behind them, the uniformed officers took the people left behind into custody shouting the Miranda Rights as fast as they could utter the words to each man, pulling their wrists behind their backs and applying zip ties before going to the next.

A female officer ran after some of the women into a room. Horatio, followed her, hearing the reason for the fleeing women's reaction; babies crying. The woman took one look and stood aside, looking stunned.

Horatio paused at the door way. He had known what he would find, just not to what extent or in what condition. The room had six cribs, each with one or two babies depending on age and size. The sound in the room assaulted his every sense. He wondered how women could tolerate one child's cry much less ten or more.

"Officer, call for help to arrest these two women. The exact charges will be stipulated after we've added them all up. I think child endangerment will do for now."

Not finding Jake, as he so dearly hoped he would, he stepped out to the living room that was still filled with shouting from the arrestors and the arrestees, and from men on radios ordering transport vans. He pulled out his cell but returned it to his pocket when he was called to another room.

Standing at the threshold to what might have been a dining room that had had a great view to the street, Horatio felt his jaw muscles tighten. Somehow, only five screaming infants was not any less heart rending. Worse, little Jake wasn't among them either.

Just as he finished his conversation ordering medics and ambulances for the children, he got another summons to go upstairs. This house had four bedrooms plus an upstairs bath. Here, in the hallway lit only by the flashlights carried by officers, were four girls and three boys, all in their teen years. The girls wore nothing but short chemises and the boys were in undershorts.

"What do we have here, Walter?" Horatio held his voice under tight control in spite of his growing anger.

"The girls were in one room and the boys were in the other three manacled with chains to studs in the walls. It looks recently done. We used bolt cutters to free them."

"If I miss my guess, the people below were getting their stable settled in for the night."

Answering the cell, Horatio said, "Yes Eric? What did you find at the other house?"

"But not Jake? I think we have fewer adults and more babies here."

"Alright, Walter and Ryan can stay here to collect evidence. You, Yelina and I will go to the station. We're in for a long night."

At the station, Yelina's first comment to Horatio was, "Marquez Soledad isn't among the ones from either house."

"And Jake wasn't among them either so we can conclude Soledad might still have Jake. We'll have to find out why this group exited the apartments so fast today."

"Yes, I didn't see anything permanent at the houses so we can assume they just found out today we would be going to the apartments and moved here fast. Do you think they knew that we had marked Soledad?"

"I don't see how. From what the witnesses at the apartment said, this group was on the move almost at the same time as the kidnapping."

"It just doesn't make sense, does it?"

An officer approached. "Sir? An odd thing about the houses we raided? There was a little boy and as soon as we got him to the station, he pulled out a card with your name. He says he wants to talk to you. I brought him up."

Taken aback, Horatio put one foot behind him and raised his hands to his waist. "Where is he?"

"Over in that hallway. An officer is with him."

"Yelina, excuse me. I think we may find out how these people knew to pull up stakes."

"I'll start figuring out who is in charge of this ring."

Horatio remembered the small boy, Tovi Manuel Engstrom from the crime scene at the empty lot. What did he have to do with this group? Why had he been at the crime scene?

This time, the boy with the coffee skin and nearly white tightly kinked hair looked even smaller as he sat in the center of the padded bench. The female officer stood close to the wall of windows that slanted from the floor up to the wall behind the bench. Although the effect of the room was usually calming to people, Tovi looked anything but.

"Hey buddy, I understand you were at one of the houses tonight." Horatio sat down beside the boy and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and looked up into Tovi's face.

"The one with all the cops, yeah." He dropped his head staring at his hands wrapped into a tight ball on his lap

"What were you doing there?"

"I was with my mom and the rest."

"And before that, you were at the apartments."

"Yeah." His green eyes looked up through his blond brows into the kind blue eyes. "Are you going to keep my mom in jail?"

"I don't know. It depends on how much she was involved with those people. She'll be questioned and then we'll see."

Tovi's solemn face was unreadable. "Will I have to be put into reformatory?"

"There is no such thing anymore. For right now, we're waiting for someone from Child Protective Services to arrive. She'll find some safe place for you to sleep tonight."

"How long will I have to stay in that place?"

Horatio changed the subject to get the boy's mind off of the unknown. "Tovi, this morning you wanted me to walk you home. Why was that?"

The boy's body squirmed as he looked from side to side. "Uh, I was afraid of being hit on by some boys."

"Tovi, we're buddies, okay? Cops and kids are always friends, no matter what. You asked me a favor this morning and just because I couldn't do it, doesn't mean we aren't buddies."

Horatio got no answer so he continued on. "Now, I don't think there were any mean kids today. I think there was something else. Am I right?"

The boy straightened ever so slightly and relaxed his hands, putting the palms together, but kept his eyes down. He heaved a shuddering sigh. "I wanted you to come to my house to tell my mom to stop getting so many babies. We have enough now."

"At the apartments, you mean?"

Tovi nodded.

"Why did everyone move out so quickly?"

"I guess that was because I told her you were coming after you got done with whatever you went running off for when you got that call from that Frank guy."

Horatio dropped his head to stare down at his black Italian leather shoes.

A woman entered quietly with a smiling but business-like manner. "Lieutenant Caine? I'm Deborah Messing from CPS. I understand we have a new one to find room for?"

Horatio looked up at her with half a smile. He knew the system was necessary and yet it was so cold and too often did more harm than good. "Can you please wait for a moment Ms. Messing? I need to ask Tovi and few more questions."

Tovi's eyes had grown twice their size.

"Now, she doesn't look that bad, does she? Look, I'm pretty sure I'm going to see you again. Tonight you'll get a good night's sleep and some food if you're hungry and a good breakfast tomorrow. Okay?"

Tovi leaned back so that Horatio's body blocked his vision of this new person.

"Tovi, do you know who Marquez Soledad is?"

"Yeah, he's one of the guys who stays with us."

"Have you seen him today?"

"I saw him this morning when I was eating breakfast."

"And then what? Did he leave?"

"Yeah. He took Dinty with him."

"Who's that?"

"Another guy who stays with us. Dinty takes care of the girls upstairs."

"Were Marquez and Dinty gone all day?"

"No, Dinty helped us move into one of the houses. We had two big trucks! Most of the guys put the stuff into the trucks and then Dinty showed up after lunch to help unload stuff."

"Did Marquez say where he was going or did Dinty say where he had been or what he had done in the morning?"

"No."

Assuming Tovi meant the answer for both questions, Horatio laid a long fingered hand onto Tovi's shoulders. "Thank you for all of the information, Tovi."

Taking the small hand in his, he rose and led the boy to his new escort. "Take good care of my buddy Ms. Messing. I suggest you keep him someplace with no other kids for tonight. Some might think that being buddies with the police isn't a good thing."

"I can't guarantee what's available, Lieutenant."

Horatio's quiet voice made his point clear. "I'm charging you personally with his wellbeing or there will be serious consequences."

"I'll see what I can do."

Horatio bent down. "Tovi, do you still have my card?"

Tovi nodded.

"If you don't feel safe, you call me. Do you hear me?"

The boy nodded again.

Horatio rose to face Ms. Manning. "I'd like your card, please."

Looking at the card she handed him he nodded. "Thank you."

He watched as she gently put her arm around Tovi's shoulders and guided him out of the room, speaking quietly, asking if he had older brothers or sisters or relatives. He knew this was a show just for him. He also knew that she would continue the gentle and kind treatment because he'd made his point clear; Tovi was under his protection and he would brook no mistreatment and no mistakes.

Glancing over at the female officer, he exchanged knowing looks. "Thank you, officer."

"You're welcome, Lieutenant."

Only those who knew him very well would have been able to tell from his walk that he was now gearing up to do what he did so very well; interrogate people.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Rebah McFee, you're Tovi's mother, correct?"

"Where's my boy? What have you done with him? What have you done with my other babies?" The generously plump woman began to rise as did her voice.

Horatio gave Yelina a look. "Please remain seated Ms. McFee. Am I to assume from your initial reply that Tovi is your son?"

"Yes and I want him back." A reddish tinge under her velvet black cheeks began to show.

"Right now he is someplace safe. He'll be well cared for, get a good night's sleep and we'll see about what happens tomorrow."

"You can't keep me. No sir! I didn't do nothing wrong."

"How about keeping so many babies in a single room? How about the young people upstairs behind locked doors?"

"So?"

Like any law officer with half a functioning mind, when people like this woman played stupid he wanted to grab and shake some sense into her. Since that wasn't allowed, Horatio stood looking down at his fingers as he let one hand play with the forefinger of his left, a ploy he often used to avoid taking unwise action.

"So, Ms. McFee, that is wrong and since you were in the house where that was occurring, you are, at least, an accomplice to the fact. And being an accomplice to child endangerment, to say the least, you probably won't be getting Tovi back any time soon."

"What about my other babies?"

Yelina, who had taken a position in the corner of the room as if to be as far from the woman as possible spoke up. "They are not yours. Even if some of them were, the fact that they were packed into those rooms like sardines in a can shows you aren't fit as a parent."

"You can't say that! I love those babies. What about those families who have that many kids or more that you see on TV? Nobody says they aren't good parents."

Horatio sat down across the Plexiglas table from the woman. He laid one palm flat on the table and the other palm on top of that and then lowered his chin to rest on them. Raising his eyes up, he asked, "Who is Marquez Soledad?"

Caught off guard, Ms. McFee answered without thought, "He's one of the kids who stays with us all. We need a lot of help."

"Help doing what?"

Realizing what she might be admitting to, her eyelids lowered to half-mast. "Help with the babies, getting food and stuff. He pays rent to stay like some of the others do."

"We have him on tape kidnapping a child this morning."

Her head jerked and her eyes opened wide briefly. "What? What baby? From where?"

Horatio raised his head to look over at Yelina. This was a development he hadn't expected. The woman's reaction had been genuine. She knew Soledad, but she hadn't known of his morning activity.

Rising from his chair, he left the room followed by Yelina.

When the two were out of sight of Tovi's mother, Yelina said, "Then how did they know to move?"

"Her son, Tovi, told her. He was at the crime scene where I was before Frank called."

"Oh, was that the small boy of mixed race with the green eyes?" She smiled at the memory.

"Yes. He wanted me to walk him home. Then Frank called. I gave him one of my cards saying he should call me if he was in trouble. When he found himself with the others here, he showed his card and said he wanted to talk to me."

"Did you ask about Soledad?"

"I did and he said he hadn't seen him since earlier that morning. Then he said he wanted me to go with him to tell his mother to quit 'getting' so many babies. I'm guessing he went home and threatened to bring me if she didn't stop. I figured they ran for both reasons. Apparently the two cases are separate."

"So you think Soledad may have been acting alone?"

"We don't know that yet for sure. Ms. McFee might be a very good actress."

"Where do we go from here?"

"Let's let Ms. McFee stew for a while. I want to find out what Eric is getting from the young people that were locked in the upstairs rooms."

Eric looked more than relieved to be called away from his interview.

It was hard to find a place to talk since several more boys and girls, none that looked over eighteen, were sitting on the benches in the halls. All had temporarily been given orange jumpsuits to wear.

The three slipped into the firing range since it had a door and no one was using it.

"I've interviewed three so far and every story is the same." His lips curled in disgust as he spoke. "These kids were used for breeding! Kidnapped at twelve to fourteen, the boys are kept chained to a cot with a pot for a toilet. The girls are kept upstairs with nothing but mattresses to sleep on. One girl, they said, has gone insane and just lies on the bed and pulls snot from her nose and puts it on the wall all day and night."

Yelina reacted by looking away. Horatio's body became rigid as his thick brows lowered over his thundering eyes.

Yelina finally turned to ask, "Kidnapped from where?"

"They're so traumatized now they don't even remember. I'm guessing small towns and from families that either haven't bothered to report or who haven't the power to make the powers that be do their jobs."

The curly haired police detective continued asking what she didn't want the answers to. "I notice that there are a few that look almost eighteen but no older."

"I did too. The girls see the most and they say that one day a girl or a boy is there and the next they never see them again."

Horatio's growl could hardly be heard. "Do the babies belong to the girls?"

Eric swallowed hard. "They aren't sure. The infants were all born where they lived and are taken away immediately. They never see them again. One girl used to have a view of the front of the apartment and, once in a while, would see cars pull up and couples get out. One of the women of the house would bring bundles out that she said looked like babies and hand them over. The couples, she said, handed the woman a package first."

Then Eric added the last straw, "These kids cover the race spectrum from Nordic to Mediterranean, Asian to Black and even one Samoan. The girls say they are put with one boy every day until she's pregnant, and after she's given birth and recovered, then she's put with another. What does that sound like to you?"

"It sounds like babies made to order, Eric."

"Yeah, I thought so too."

"Eric, take a break from the details of what went on in the house. We can get that later. For now, get names and addresses from those who remember. Also, if you can, get names of the ones who disappeared. Then let them go so they can get some rest."

Eric's face brightened a bit. "Good. I think they all fall under CPS except maybe two of the boys. I'll find a place for those two."

"Yelina, let's ask Ms. McFee who the boss of the place is. If it's not her, we need to talk to that one."

Just as they started down the hall, each heard a ring from their cell phones. Each stepped away from the other about five paces so they could hear; both opened their eyes wide, gave quick affirmative replies and folded their phones.

Yelina said, "Clinica on Fordham and Rosaflora?"

"Yes. That's near the apartments, isn't it?"

Neither bothered to check their weapons. The victim was dead and no one else had been found on the scene.

Inside the medical clinic located in the mini-mall, set up for small walk-ins only, everything seemed normal in the front office. A sign said Closed and the lights were off. Other than the shattered glass in the front door when the officers responding to the calls had broken in, everything seemed to be in order.

Yelina and Horatio walked down the short hall to the beckoning uniformed Sergeant. He was standing by a door that led to a lighted room. He had the look of a duty hardened officer doing his best to maintain a stone face and not quite succeeding.

The scene in the room showed why. On the table, a very young girl of Asian descent in her early teens lay on a partially raised table. Her legs were splayed open, her feet still in the stirrups. The mix of russet sterilizer smeared between her upper legs blended with the deeper color of the blood that had so freely flowed from her innards. A single bag of fluid hung from the IV drip stand and connected to a small tube with a needle inserted into arm. It was empty. No other bags either used or new were visible around the room.

"Sergeant, what calls brought you here?"

As if glad to not have to look at the room any more, the man quickly pulled out a notebook. "Patrol got a 911 call from several people saying they were hearing screams from the Clinica here. When they arrived they didn't hear anything but broke in to investigate. This is what they found. Subsequent interviews from people around said there was a gray Cadillac SUV parked in back that took off like about fifteen minutes before the first officers arrived. Before that, when the place was open, no one paid much attention to the screams. Those began intermittently about four in the afternoon but, again, the place was open and people assumed it was a patient being tended to. The screams continued until they were almost constant at about midnight."

While the Sergeant spoke, Yelina walked to the side of the table and around, being careful not to step in any blood or on any of the gauze sponges or rubber gloves. Though her eyebrows remained at rest, her sensitive mouth nearly trembled with emotion. When the Sergeant was done, she asked, "Horatio, do you think there might be any hope for the child?"

"What child ma'am?" the officer asked.

Horatio wanted to snap, 'What the hell do you think happened here? The girl had a heavy period?' Seasoned though the officer might be, he was obviously only dealing with the facts as presented; he could not make himself draw conclusions. For certain, this man would be stuck in his current position on the force until he could make the leap.

Turning to Yelina, he could only answer, "Assuming the birth was live and healthy, we have to assume the doctor knows how to care for a newborn. One thing is sure, we know the physician's name." He nodded at the diploma on the wall.

Horatio gave the Sergeant his instructions and then called Ryan. "Take your time coming over. It isn't going anywhere. I'll leave word for the ME to take photos before moving the body. Yelina and I are going back to interviewing the women at the lab."

In the lab, Yelina suggested, "Let's interrogate one or two of the other women besides Rebah first. That way, we'll have a base line of who says what."

"I'll call for two of the women and you think of questions to ask. Yelina, we don't have much time. We need some kind of lead to take us to little Jake."

Half an hour later, they were listening to a short black woman, her hair coiffed in long ringlets.

"Lordy! If we took to kidnapping babies, we'd be up to our necks in them. It's enough that we have the ones those kids produced."

Then, "Me? Rebah pays me $300 a month and I also live with them and eat with them. I love babies so that's been the only reason I stayed."

The next woman, a mix of both Latina and Black, replied, "At the rate those kids were popping out babies we sure as hell didn't need more. I don't know what Marquez might have been thinking. He usually did only what Rebah told him. I think when he was out, he was with those bums, the what-d'ya'-call-'em, something Angels."

"So you know of the No Somos Angeles?"

"Only what my son Lamar says, that they're bad news bears."

They let this woman go back to holding and called in her son, Lamar.

After the usual bit of dancing around to see how much he could get away with not saying and finding it wasn't much, Lamar was forthcoming. "First of all, understand, I don't run with that crowd. They ain't got no morals. They'll do anything for any amount of money, even a dime. I mean they do drugs, prostitution, transport illegals, smuggle stuff, run guns, anything."

"Kidnapping?"

Without skipping a beat Lamar came back with, "Yeah, I'd guess they do that if someone came to them asking for a kid with enough money in his hand to make it worth their while."

From her position in the middle of the room, arms crossed across her chest, Yelina asked, "What does it take to be jumped into that gang?"

Lamar's face twisted and his dark eyes rolled so wide as to show the whites. "Hey, I don't know and I don't want to find out. I'd guess it's anything that makes the gang money. I mean, I don't think they're about anything else, not even honor."

"Thank you Lamar."

Ignoring Lamar's pleas to get him a special deal, Horatio had a far more important subject on his mind. "Yelina, let's find out who Ms. McFee has been dealing with and if someone wanted what she couldn't provide."

Ms. McFee took some convincing before she realized that she couldn't deal her way out of her predicament. Once she learned that there was another victim from her house found dead, the fight in her drained. She knew she couldn't trade the information for her son, any of the children, or her freedom. Those blue eyes looking down his nose at her, veiled in pale lashes and overhung with lowered brows were unrelenting. All he had said was, if she was forthcoming with information, answering questions, they might recommend she get a better deal from the State's Attorney's office, nothing more.

"I never took no names from anyone or nothing. I mean, I got names and phone numbers but for all I knew they were faked and the phones were burners. These people came to me, told me what kind of look they wanted in a child and I did my best to fulfill it. Usually, all they wanted was a child of their background like maybe a Asian and a Black mix. I didn't know who they were, didn't want to know."

"So you never knew if those children were going to abusive homes or not? You never checked into backgrounds, never questioned why they couldn't adopt?"

The woman leaned back. "Hell, with all the rules about babies now, people can't adopt for lots of reasons. Those same people can make all the babies they want and nobody stops them but if they can't make any, then there's rules. I don't discriminate. Besides, look at all the people who have babies and shouldn't. "

Two entirely different looks came between Horatio and Yelina. Horatio only knew the laws and knew what this woman had done was against many of them. Yelina understood the pains of parenthood, of trying to have children, wanting to have children and being denied the joy.

Horatio continued. "Was there ever a request made to you that you couldn't fulfill?"

"You mean for a baby?"

Horatio stepped back a pace and lowered his eyes to watch his fingers. He wanted to reply, 'no, a request for a liver transplant!' After a moment he said as quietly as his patience would allow, "Yes for a baby."

Rebah's eyes darted back and forth as if measuring the size of the cage she found herself in.

"Come to think of it, yeah, last month, a couple of old folks came. They wanted a blond, blue eyed boy only they said they couldn't wait for it; they had to have it immediately. I gave them the story about finding parents with the right backgrounds willing to give up their kid before it's born and all."

"Meaning, you didn't tell them about your breeding stable?"

Rebah's full lips pursed before she said. "They said they couldn't wait and left."

Yelina asked, "How do these people learn about you?"

The large black shoulders raised up towards her small ears and fell. "I been doing this since a few months after Tovi was born. I'd be out walking with him and people would stop us in the street and say how they wished they could have a baby as pretty as Tovi. His papa was one of those whitey whites from some north Europe country. He's gone now. Well, I always took in young folks to live with me anyway. There's always kids that need a roof, y'know. One girl had a pretty girl baby by a Chinee boy. She didn't want to keep the baby. We was walking down the street one time and got stopped by a black woman and a chinaman who said they wished they could have children. Well, next thing I knew, we struck a deal. Then, would you believe, the dumb girl went and did it again with a white boy? Pretty little kid though and well, he went the same as the other. I guess word got around…"

"What about the rest of the kids?" Horatio's tone sounded like idle curiosity.

"I didn't mean for it to go like it did. After the kids had two babies and we got homes for them, someone came asking for a baby that looked like a Latin and Black kid. The girl I had was a Black but no regular boyfriend. By that time, I had a couple of people helping me. We couldn't find a Latin kid on the streets that would make a kid to give away so we went out of town and found a kid walking down the road and brought him home." She smiled a wicked grin. "He was glad to help out that time. Then he wanted to leave and we made it so he couldn't. Then we found others. You'd be surprised how eager kids were for some food and a bed. Shoot! I was surprised to find nobody went looking for the others."

"You kidnapped them, you mean." Yelina's remark was not a question.

The black head bobbed to one side in a vague acquiescence.

Horatio walked forward and put his hands on the clear plastic topped table. He leaned across the table. "So, do you think Marquez might have heard the conversation with this elderly couple after they left you?"

Rebah looked up brazenly and answered, "Ya think? I mean, I didn't pay no attention to who was in the room while we talked. All I know is that I had nothing to do with what he did."

"Again, I ask how do these people hear about you?"

"I'm saying all I know is that they come to me. I guess they hear from someone else who got kid from me."

"Horatio, can I talk to you outside for a moment?" Yelina motioned with her head to the corridor.

Once they were in the hall, she went on. "There's something we're missing in the equation here. Something else drove Soledad to kidnapping little Jake. He had a good thing at McFee's house; room, board and enough time to himself to hang out with the No Somos Angeles gang. Why would he put that in jeopardy?"

Horatio pulled out his cell. "Frank used to work gangs. Let's see if he's familiar this one."

A minute later, he was replying, "No Frank, nothing yet. I do have a question. Does the gang name No Somos Angeles mean anything?"

Franks grunt came through the phone loud and clear. "Oh yeah, they mean that about being no angels. The last I heard was a suspicion of motorcycle theft. They're nasty and into anything that can make them money on."

"So we've already heard. Do you think they would make kidnapping a term for being jumped into the gang?"

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"Frank, do you think there's anyone undercover inside the gang?"

"You mean like Jake Berkley or what your brother did?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Horatio listened in the pregnant pause. He knew Frank's thoughts were to question why anyone, even undercover, would put a baby in danger, much less his child.

"I can find out."

"Just tell me who to contact. You've got a few things on your plate."

"And this will make me feel like I'm clearing my plate instead of watching it get cold. I'll get back to you."

Putting his folded cell phone back inside his jacket pocket, Horatio turned to Yelina again. "Go back and see if you can get Ms. McFee to remember anything that the couple might have said about where they are from."

"Or why, as an older couple, they would want an infant."

"Yes, that too."

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

At midnight, Horatio was feeling the day weighing on his shoulders like the earth itself. Every blink was like sandpaper scraping over his eyes. His mind was clear but his body was lead. The ceiling above him seemed much higher than usual and the walk to the interview room contained more steps than he remembered.

"Eric, did you get anything from the kidnapped kids?"

"I got two addresses and the rest only have vague recollections of what town they lived in. Most came from large families and parents who were overwhelmed with the fall in the economy. I get the impression the families moved to places where housing was cheap and these kids didn't like being taken from their friends. They felt lost and disconnected. Like kids at that age do under that kind of circumstances, they did a lot of walking."

Horatio nodded, looking at the two young men who were still waiting to be interviewed. "They were at the rebellious age and the parents couldn't handle it."

Eric followed Horatio's view with his own eyes and nodded.

"What could you find out about the kids who seemed to have disappeared from the house?"

"Nothing. I don't think the ones I talked to have a clue."

"Foul play?"

"After what they did to these kids here? I'm not holding my breath on the others."

"Did you talk with the girl the others were saying is insane?"

"No. She's under sedation at the hospital."

"Alright. Look, you find a place for these two young men that Child Protective Services won't handle and then go home for some shuteye, yourself. I think we have everything under control so far."

Eric looked surprised. "But what about little Jake?"

The red brows fought for space over the furrowed ridge above the nose. The blue eyes stood out brightly against a suddenly flushed face. His voice held a note of quiet desperation. "If you know of anything we can do, any way we can find an unidentified white older couple with a four month old baby, any way to find Marquez Soledad, then we stay up and we go. Right now, I think if we get a few hours' sleep, let the night crew of the MDPD and the lab find what they can, we'll get him faster."

Eric was obviously taken aback by the mild tirade from his brother-in-law. However, he knew this was concern for family and he easily let it go. "I don't know how well I'm going to sleep. I know if I think up anything, I'm going to call you."

Horatio nodded in acquiescence. "And I'll appreciate it. I'll ask the others to do the same."

Having already called Ryan and Natalia and told them to go home after processing the scene at the apartments and the Clinica, Horatio headed down to the morgue.

Pushing through the double doors, he paused in surprise. "Alexx, I expected to find the night shift ME."

The lady looked through the halo of light around her into the darkness. The gigantic set of lights extending from a single arm that could light up to two tables at once and with lighting from a number of views cast a tent of radiance in the gloom. She knew the voice and answered, "Old habits die hard, Horatio. I knew this child from the Clinica was part of what you're dealing with."

Horatio walked forward and, with the ME, stood over the body of the girl on the table.

"And?"

"She's dead because of exsanguination due to really bad care. My guess is that she was brought into the Clinica when she was too far gone in the first place. She was probably already bleeding uncontrollably. Then, the Clinica didn't have enough blood or fluids and couldn't stop the bleeding. I'm guessing she barely had a four pints left in her body"

"Was it a live birth?"

Alexx stepped back and shrugged over folded arms. "Can't say. Depends on whether it was full term. I'm guessing that since there was no dead child, that, yes, it was a live birth."

"Alexx, I'm going home and I already sent the rest of the team home. You go home too. Okay?"

His request was met with a motherly grin. "Actually, I was about to close down when you came in. I'll hang up my coat and go out with you."

Horatio walked his friend to her car answering questions about Calleigh's state of mind as best he could. Seeing Alexx drive off, he walked around to his own car. Once inside, he found as he did too often these days, that it took every bit of effort he could muster to put the key into the ignition. Firing up the engine and getting that satisfying growl that only a TR-4 can give, he put it into gear and eased out of the parking structure.

Opening the door to his beach front condo, he was surprised to see his old phone message box blinking and sounding the occasional beep. Anyone he knew, called him at his cell number. Punching the button, he almost deleted it then smiled at the sound of Solange's voice.

"Hi, I just thought you'd like to hear a friendly voice when you got home. I didn't want to call your cell and interrupt you on the job. I know you're after the kidnapper and probably worked late if you came home at all.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm going on a little trip to visit a friend of mine out in Moab, Utah. I got a letter from her inviting me out and I decided to take her up on it. I'm packing now and will be taking the red eye tonight. I was supposed to be at the morgue tomorrow. I left a message, but will you make sure they get it? I'm not exactly indispensable around there but they should know not to expect me. I'll call when I'm back. Take care, bye."

Numbly, he played the message again hoping to hear different words. No, still the same. She was suddenly taking off and had not said for how long. An unformed fear of abandonment tried to sneak into his core. He shoved it out of the way. Of course, she had a business here and she could not be gone for very long. For now, he would be busy himself and so would be lucky to catch a phone call now and then until the case was over.

This made him realize he'd been up for twenty hours and how very tired he was. Only bothering to hang his jacket and slacks on the valet chair in the bedroom, leaving the rest on the floor, he was in bed, trying to get to sleep and failing.

Something about Solange's sudden departure bothered him. Was it how he had kissed her? Had he frightened her? He reviewed the moment of almost eight hours before. Had she responded? He could have sworn she had. She certainly had not slapped him or told him not to return. No, he was fairly sure she had not been upset. Solange's departure did not add up. What was it that Yelina had said earlier about what was going on with Ms. McFee; something was missing in the equation only this one involved Solange and him.

With no answer, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

Although four hours sleep or less wasn't nearly enough for any of the team, none of them said anything as they showed one after the other at seven the next morning. Even Valera carried a determined look in her luminous eyes under the disheveled mop that no one could tell was the cut or a rush job on getting ready for the day. The only one who seemed his normal, self-contained, stiff upper lip style was Travers.

"Yelina, I believe you said Frank called in some information."

She referred to a note in her hand. "Yes, he left a message. His contact wouldn't give up who was under cover or in what connection to the 'We're No Angels' gang; all he was told was some newbie had come to them asking if kidnapping a kid would get him in as a member. They told him a price to charge for the kid and to bring the money when he had it."

Before Horatio could speak, Yelina went on. "We're already rounding up as many of the gang members as we can. They should be here in about half an hour."

"Thank you, Yelina. Walter, when they come in, I want you and Ryan to do the interviewing with me. Eric, I want you to bring in a couple of those teenagers from the apartments and show them the pictures of the girls in the morgue."

Eric nodded. "If that girl in the Clinica was dressed like the one in the field, they were both dressed like the girls at the houses. I'll bet they know one of them."

As if on cue, Horatio's cell rang. "Yes, Detective Fargo, we're becoming aware of that."

After a pause, he continued, "I agree, your case looks like it's as much a part of the children's case as it is part of my kidnapping case."

"I understand and we can discuss how it all fits later. Right now, I'm just short of hour twenty-four in the kidnapping." He snapped his cell shut and put it into his pocket, his mouth almost forming a snarl.

Breathing slowly, trying to find his center again, he went on, "Natalia, would you please go to the hospital and check on the disturbed girl? If nothing else, get a medical opinion of her condition and what might have caused it."

"I'll do that."

Yelina checked her watch. "I'll see if anyone in the department has located Marquez or has seen anything resembling the BOLO on the older couple with a very young baby. We're also tracking down the doctor from the Clinica. Later, I'm going to call Calleigh."

Finally Horatio turned to Maxine and Travers. "I want you two to stand by ready to process evidence taken from the 'Angels' members. Even if we don't get anything to connect them to this crime now, I want to get some reason to hold them."

Each of the two reacted differently. Valera's eyes lit up at the idea of so many goodies to look at. Travers pulled back as if he already smelled something offensive to his English sensibilities.

Leaving the two to ready their parts of the lab, Horatio went to the room where Walter and Ryan had retired to talk over how to handle the upcoming interviews.

Ryan was saying, "—they'll be saying 'I was in bed, asleep, alone', mark my words."

"Yeah, I'm hearing you."

Horatio smiled slowly, "So, don't ask where they were. Don't ask anything, don't say anything."

Walter's boyish grin beamed at Ryan's angular face. "Let them do all the talking! Of course! They'll be talking rings around themselves in no time."

Ryan's head fell to one side in puzzlement. "Okay, I know the principle but run it past me again."

"In this case," Horatio's voice fell into his playful tone, "We're going to process the men within an inch of their lives, from head to toe. I want every piece of clothing, combings from their hair, GSR tests, scrapings from under their fingernails, everything. While we do it, we don't answer their questions, we don't say a thing."

Walter continued, "Most people can't stand a conversational void; they want information, they want to make small talk. If they think we think they're guilty of something, they'll say something that is easy to question."

"And since we're inviting them to come down, why would they allow us to take samples?"

"From the beginning, we insinuate that if they don't 'volunteer' their samples, they are indicating guilt; we just don't say what guilt. A few might be experienced enough to know that isn't true but this gang is too new yet. Most don't have much of a footprint much less experience with police."

Walter smirked, "Not for lack of desire. I'll bet most anything that all but maybe one or two have a close relative they admire in the prison system."

"Yes, and so don't take their word for anything."

The conversation was cut short at this point as the first three Angels gang members were put into different interview rooms.

Horatio was fairly certain the other two team members were saying and doing about the same as he was. "Geraldo, we're trying to eliminate anyone who might possibly be connected with a crime we're investigating. If you don't mind, I'd like your outer clothing and a few things like combings from your hair, skin scrapings and the like. It won't hurt, I assure you."

Geraldo tried to object and Horatio answered, "Then we'll hold you for twenty-four hours to question anyone who you say might be an alibi to your whereabouts for the last twenty-four hours."

Only those with a solid criminal past knew even that was false. They could only hold a suspect for particular reasons including parole violations. Most, however, believed the police had the power to hold them just because and few thought to invoke a right to an attorney.

Then the fun began. Working as slowly as possible, the red head took the outer clothing and put each piece into a plastic bag, sealed it with the red tape and wrote his initials on it. Then he wrote down Geraldo's name. Looking at Geraldo on occasion as if there was some meaning to what he was doing, Horatio could see that the boy didn't notice he had not written any case number on the label. To a more knowledgeable person, this alone would have been a dead giveaway. As it was, the observations made the young boy nervous.

Watching his eyes begin to flick from side to side as if searching for anything he could remember that might get him in trouble, anything that would leave a mark on him telling this cop that he was guilty, Horatio proceeded.

After taking the clothes and giving the boy a paper jumpsuit to wear, Horatio ran a comb through the boy's hair, took a swabbing of his mouth and cleaned under his fingernails, all the while, saying nothing.

Of course, Geraldo asked questions about what was being done, that was the point. The lack of answers made him more and more nervous, which was also the point. Knowing Walter and Ryan were doing the same, Horatio began playing a mental game with himself, wondering who was going to get the first crack in the facade, which team member was going to hear denial of guilt and of what. He didn't give himself any credit for the lead on experience or his higher rank. In a procedure such as this, the playing field was level and any of the three could be winning because of different methods peculiar to each and the idiosyncrasies of each gang member.

Geraldo did not give in, but, then, he would have proven to be unworthy of the 'Angels' membership if he had. None of the others had either. Even so, Horatio was sure of the results. He was in the business of forensics, making heads and tails of bits and pieces. Once they found the heads and tails, it was easy to infer what the body was whether they got a confession or no.

Giving the bags to an officer to take to Travers and Valera, the three team members brought in three more gang members and did the same thing.

After those three were processed, even though less than an hour had passed, Horatio entered the room to face Geraldo again. Since then no test results had yet been returned.

'Now,' thought Horatio, 'the fun begins.'

He called for Geraldo to be brought back in. Horatio sat himself at the end of the table while Geraldo faced the table, his hands buried between his legs, protecting his valuable parts. Horatio had placed the chair facing sideways to the table and he leaned back with his arm stretched out on the table. For a moment, he drummed his fingers on the table, as he stared a hole in the bent head covered in wavy black hair.

"We have some of the test results back."

The answer was defiant. "So?" The head remained bent.

"How did you come in contact with baby powder?"

The head shot upright and the arms became animated. "My aunt Liana had a baby. So what?"

Horatio rose and walked to the door. Just before he closed the door, he added, "How did your aunt come by such an expensive baby powder?"

Walking down the hall, he knew he had been shot down. Geraldo could have been telling the truth. Unfortunately, a lie was no reason to get a search warrant to look for the talc. The only chance on Geraldo now was if Travers or Valera came up with something solid.

Cursing his misjudgment as he strode down the hall, he looked around at Walter and Ryan and hoped they were faring better. It had been a while since his instincts had failed him and it was a blow.

"Travers, what have we got on Geraldo's take?"

Michael Travers turned to reply, "Nothing on him but something interesting on another one. Do we happen to have a sample of the sort of talc that Calleigh used on Jake?"

Horatio's heart skipped a beat. "We might. I'll be right back."

Valera's reply to his question was gratifying. "As a matter of fact, that was part of the trace Natalia got from the stroller. I didn't do anything with it since I knew what it was. I had given it to Cal as part of a baby shower gift at her shower. It smells like lavender and night blooming jasmine."

"Run it through the spectrometer for an exact analysis please."

A moment later, he took the results to Travers. The comparison was a match to the trace he had found on the clothing.

"Just one thing, Horatio." The prim British man sounded hesitant.

Horatio paused, his head bent in a listening posture. "Yes?"

The trace shows the powder is a secondary pickup, not primary. That is…"

"…he picked it up from someone who had held Jake or at least someone who had come in direct contact with that powder."

Taking a moment to follow the explanation, Travers tentatively answered, "Yes, I think so, that is to say..."

Horatio was gone before the puzzled lab technician could say he had not come to any certain conclusion.

This time the quick exit was spurred because he had seen Ryan walk by and give him a look. He followed him to the center hall.

He wasn't surprised to find Walter smacking his lips and smelling a bit like corn nuts as he waited for the two to come up to him.

"I don't know about you, but I couldn't get a thing from the two clowns I interviewed. Did you?"

Horatio told them to return to the young men they had interviewed and see if they had any new babies in the family. "We have already analyzed what baby powder was used on the children in the houses and it's different from the type Calleigh used on Jake. Now let's see what their stories might be on this."

Ryan fairly chortled on his return to the threesome. "Claudio and Hernan have six relatives and four girlfriends with new babies. I somehow don't think any of them use something that smells like lavender or jasmine."

"You got me beat. Placido and Carlo only have one girlfriend and one relative with a baby each among them. I asked them where the women got baby powder and they both said the local bodega. Something tells me that isn't baby shower quality. "

Horatio flashed a rare smile. "And strangely, only one, Placido, was sporting the type of talc that Calleigh was using on little Jake yesterday."

Walter thought they should hold the gang on that alone and Horatio vetoed the idea. "We need a hold to count or the lawyers will come down on us on any little thing we come up with later."

"I tried telling my guy, Placido, that he'd been given up by your guy, Wolfe, but he just clammed up."

"I told my guy that we had Marquez and he'd turned over on him; he whined a little but that's all."

Pushing his jacket back and putting his hands on his hips, Horatio raised his chin looking to the shafts of afternoon light. There was so much they could try and only so much that would guarantee a conviction.

"Let's go see what else Valera and Travers have."

Valera pointed to her table littered with odds and ends of cut material. "I have an awful lot of oil trace; some in their hair and under their fingernails and most on the sleeves and pants legs. I'm trying to figure out where it could be from now. I'd turn it over to Eric but he's out in the field."

Ryan held out his hand. "Let me have a look at it. I've seen Eric do this sort of analysis often enough before. I think I can figure out where it comes from."

Travers looked at him inquisitively. "I'm sorry but my findings show that all motor oil is pretty much the same."

Ryan smiled. "Well, except that every machine leaves a mark on the oil used on it. If we can determine what is in the oil, for instance like if it is bits of tranny metal, that would be expected in droppings from motor cycles. Then we can see if there is oil in the warehouse or even something like cars or motor cycles."

Travers gave Ryan his politely skeptical look.

Walter shifted into motion as he said, "I saw Natalia come in so I'll take her to check for motorcycles and what else can be found at that place where they hang out. Most of those kids are too young to have licenses so maybe we can get them for driving at least. My bet, though, is if we can match the oil to a stolen vehicle we can get them for that."

An hour later, Ryan called Walter to tell him to look for motorcycles or traces to show they had been present at one time.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Yelina, anything yet on the BOLO for the Clinica doctor and the infant?"

"Nothing yet. A unit was sent to his home yesterday evening and no one was home. Neighbors say he isn't married or living with anyone. We've had a unit sitting on the house since then with no results."

"Check the Clinica records and find the name of the nurse or an office manager. They usually know about the doctor's personal life."

Yelina smiled crookedly. "They usually know more than the wife, if there is one, and often more than they care to know about anything else in the doctor's life. Doctors expect their staff to be their caretakers.

"We also did a records search on his medical background. He has a medical degree from a university in the Caribbean, graduated nearly last in his class, spent his residency at the teaching hospital there. He is barely qualified to treat a cat scratch much less birth complications." Horatio's voice was quiet with sadness.

"And now he's perhaps caring for a baby born under distress? We have to find him quickly."

Horatio raised his head with a look of determination at his dead brother's widow. "I think I know of a quicker means to finding him. Ms. Mcfee said most of the births were in her home. I'm betting, since the dead girl ended up at the clinic, he started out at the house. This would mean he has probably helped with births before."

Half an hour later, the two were facing Rebah in a small room. The room would have been almost claustrophobic if not for the glass walls.

Horatio posed over the black woman, leaning on the small dark plastic table top. "Was he there for all of the births?"

"Yeah, most of them. Sometimes those babies popped out too fast and we told him not to come."

Horatio swallowed hard at the information. The idea of those children giving birth without a doctor present was nearly as difficult to deal with as the woman's disregard for baby health and wellbeing. "Did he ever talk about his personal life? Did he talk about girlfriends?"

"Why should I tell you?"

Yelina's quiet voice startled the woman. "Because a child's life might depend on it."

Rebah waived a hand carelessly. "Oh, he talked about a girlfriend, but all men want to brag on that. He said she was a nurse that worked in a Clinica in South Beach. She lived around there too."

After sending Rebah back to holding, the two were walking to the elevators, ready to head for South Beach. Just before reaching the elevator, Horatio's cell rang.

After briefly holding the device to his ear he turned to say, "Yelina, you take a patrol car and go without me. Walter and Natalia are at the No Somos Angeles warehouse and now they have some unexpected company. I'll have to meet you back here."

All Natalia had said was they had company and that he'd better come. Horatio didn't know what he would find at the warehouse, but he was not expecting to find two anxious looking couples each standing by their respective vehicles in the parking lot. Walter had called for backup, for just in case so there were two green and whites and officers standing by.

"Natalia, what do we have here?"

The CSI pointed at one of the couples, two young men in their later twenties or early thirties. "About an hour ago, these guys showed up. They said they had an appointment to receive the child they were adopting. They had a small bag filled with cash too."

"I'm assuming they were expecting a blond baby with green eyes even though they are of mixed race?"

"I didn't even get that far in the questioning, Horatio. Fifteen minutes after they came, this other couple arrived." She pointed to the man and woman standing by the police unit twenty feet away from the first couple.

"Same story, I assume?"

"Bag of cash, too. In both cases, all denominations under one hundred and non-consecutive serial numbers. It looks like they may have had to go to various places to cash checks and get change from larger denominations."

"How much?

"One was one hundred and twelve thousand and the other was one hundred and fifty-eight thousand."

"In short, whatever the market would bear."

"I wonder what the story would have been here if we hadn't rounded up the gang before they arrived."

Horatio shook his head at people's gullibility when they were desperate. "I'm betting they would have taken the cash and sent them to another location for a pickup that never would have materialized."

"Oh, and Horatio, that girl at the hospital?"

"The emotionally disturbed one? Did you get to talk with her?"

"It's going to be a while before we can talk to her if ever. She's in a near catatonic state. The doctor I talked to said they want to run a tox scan on her to see what is in her system, if anything. I told him I had gone over the house and found nothing but he said they needed to be sure before they could treat her with any drugs to help her recovery."

After thanking Natalia for the information and her and Walter for their presence of mind to call him, the lieutenant had each couple transported to the station in separate police cars. Their cars, they were told, would be towed to a police lot and examined. Horatio took a quick look inside of each vehicle and noted the brand new baby seat in the back accompanied by a box of diapers and several baby blankets. These would-be parents were prepared, to say the least.

Two hours of questioning the pair of young revealed little more than what they had told Natalia. They had been told to arrive at a specific time at the warehouse with the money. For that, they would be getting a healthy blond baby boy with green or blue eyes, less than six months old.

Not hopeful, Horatio went to the next room to interrogate the second couple. The woman's first remarks as he entered took him off guard.

"What will happen to that baby? Will he have someone to take care of him tonight?"

Sitting down, Horatio bent his head to one side as his forehead folded so his eyebrows could meet. He hesitated before speaking, trying to find the words. Finding no other way, he came out with it. "Ma'am, there probably never was a child for you."

"What? How can that be? They said…"

"If there was a child, in all likelihood, he was a kidnapped baby."

"We saw something about a kidnapped baby on the news. You mean that one?"

"I can't say for sure. Just how did you think some young men, people you didn't know, were going to acquire a child?"

The woman looked worriedly at her husband and leaned toward him as if for physical support.

The man answered, "I guess we didn't think about that. We were just so desperate."

"We wanted a baby so much."

On further questioning, Horatio found that their desperation came from the impatience known to the well to do. They wanted what they wanted and the slow grind of the laws both in the U.S. and abroad were not for them. He wondered if either couple had ever cared for even so much as a puppy much less a child.

"How did you know to go to this place for a baby?" Horatio was referring to the warehouse.

The woman said, "From our housecleaner, Lupe. She heard us talking about wanting a baby and said another couple she cleans for just got a baby but had never been pregnant. She told us they heard how to do it through the woman they have as a cook. We asked Lupe to get the information and she sent us to this apartment complex in Little Havana. We met this woman outside and when we told the woman what we were there for, she said it could take up to a year! That's as bad as going through an adoption agency! So we left but didn't even get to our car when a young man came up and told us he could help us find a child immediately. We agreed and gave him our number. Yesterday he called to tell us he had our baby. We were thrilled."

Horatio finished with a tone of disgust, "And he sent you to a warehouse to meet with men with tattoos of skulls and bloody knives to set up buying a child."

The man and the woman both dropped their eyes to avoid the hard blue stare.

On asking, Horatio heard that the young man who talked to them fit Soledad's description.

Much later that night, he arranged for both couples to look at two different lineups. One was a line of women with Rebah McFee among them, and the other was a line of the No Somos Angeles gang. In each case, Reba was identified as the woman who they had been to first. The gang members in the lineup were identified as being present at the warehouse.

Answering his phone, he watched as both couples were read their rights and arrested for involvement in illegal trafficking in babies. Their pleas that they were ignorant of the law fell on deaf ears.

"Yes Officer Forbes, what can I do for you?"

From standing at rest Horatio became a sprinter down the lab hall to the elevator. On the way he hailed Ryan and Walter who had returned from the warehouse. "They found Soledad. We're going to go pick him up."

Both of them checked their pistols and then were barely able to make it to the elevator before Horatio hit the button.

Half an hour later, the silver CSI Hummer pulled to an abrupt halt in front of the small house on the south side of Little Havana. As one, all three men exited the large vehicle, their faces indicating they were there on serious business.

Two patrol cars were in front of the humble little abode. A knot of uniformed offecers surrounded a young man already in cuffs.

"That was quick," one officer said. Then he identified himself as Forbes, the one who had called Horatio.

Horatio's lips spread but his face was humorless. "We didn't want you to have to be responsible for him any longer than necessary."

The look between the two precluded any further conversation. The uniformed officers were well aware of what they had arrested the man for, and had a fair idea of why the CSI officers were taking over now.

The uniforms took several paces back from the smirking young man who was bent over the hood of the patrol car. His head swung to look over one shoulder and then the other as he said, "So, now you gonna let me go? See? I told you. You ain't got anything to hold me on."

Horatio put his hand on the kid's shoulder and pulled with a jerk, nearly knocking the lad off of his feet.

"Oops! Careful there. We wouldn't want you to fall and scrape your knee."

Before Soledad could utter another word, Horatio went on, "You have the right to remain silent and, for the moment, I respectfully ask you shut your mouth. You will get a chance to speak in a bit."

He turned to Walter and Ryan. "I want you two to ride in back with our young guest here. We want to be sure he stays safe." Saying this, he looked at the officers to be sure they were listening. If this moment should come up in court and they had to testify, he wanted to be sure they spoke the truth of what was said in their presence.

The officers returned his gaze as if they were cameras with microphones ready to play back what they had just recorded in their minds.

He could not speak as to the exact legality of what he was doing. He only hoped the matter would never come up. At the moment, he had other things on his mind, like how he was going to get the information he wanted from this punk.

Twenty minutes later, the Hummer pulled into the deserted parking lot of a large park. He had first driven past several other lots and had not seen a single car. This place was in the near center of the deserted area.

He growled, "Get him out of the car and loose those cuffs. Then get another set of cuffs so we can tie him to one of the smaller trees over there."

The two CSIs looked at each other before getting out of the car. Neither said anything, just moved.

While Walter easily manhandled Soledad out of the Hummer and shoved him to a grove of young trees, Ryan searched the glove compartment and retrieved three double looped plastic ties. He created a double loop of one set and then looped one side of one set to one side of the first set and did the same to the other side.

As the three men faded to the edge of the Hummer's low beams, Horatio checked the perimeter. He wanted to be sure no one had followed them in. What he had to do now required that they be alone.

A few seconds later, Walter and Ryan returned to the edge of the pool of light.

Ryan's voice was toneless as he said, "H, he's over there. What do you want us to do now?"

"Turn your backs and keep watch. We don't need any company right now."

Horatio made his paces long and purposeful as he strode past the two men. He found Soledad whose hands were cuffed tightly behind a tree.

"Hey, you can't do this!" The young man struggled against his bonds.

"You can't steal babies, either, but you did." Horatio stepped in close to the captive and reached to the very soft area at the top of his legs.

"I didn't steal no…" his voice ended in an agonized groan.

Horatio almost laid his cheek to that of Marquez and whispered. "Now, let's get clear on the rules here. You will tell me where that baby is or what you just felt is nothing compared to what you will feel."

"Honest! I didn't…" the groan this time was louder. "Oh jeez, let go of my balls, man."

"What did you say about the baby?" Horatio's voice was a whisper from the depths of hell.

After a whimpering yelp he said, "Okay, okay! I took the kid."

"And where is he now?"

"I don't kn…!" the voice ended in a wailing cry to the dark night.

The anguished sound behind him made Walter wince. He glanced over at Ryan's stony face and looked away to the blackness. He suspected Ryan and perhaps the rest of the team had been silent witness to this form of Horatio justice before.

Gasping, Soledad said, "Okay! I gave him to some people."

"Who?"

"Some old folks."

A growl asked, "What were their names?"

"How should I…" the groan this time was one of giving up. "They never said."

"I don't have time for this." Horatio grabbed a handful of nerve filled flesh under the pants crotch and squeezed hard.

This howl would have wakened the dead. "Oh Jesus God! Please stop!"

"If you want to use this area for pleasure ever again, you had better start talking."

Gasping for breath, Marquez' voice slowly gained more tenor and volume. "Wait, wait, uh, she called him Harold, yeah. Oh, and they drove a cream colored caddy sedan, maybe a year old."

"Now think hard. The questions get harder and I get shorter on patience. You already know what happens if you say you don't know. What was the license plate?"

The five seconds of silence became a whispered countdown. "Five more seconds for an answer. Five, four, three, two…"

Panicked now, the kid who was close to collapse said, "I don't remember all of it but it was from Brevard County, where I was born and ended in 10."

Horatio stepped back a pace. His voice again fell to a deadly whisper. "Now, if we don't find the child, if there is so much as a syllable in your answers that is a lie, you will find yourself alone in a cell block one day. On that day I will come in and you won't come out in one piece."

With that, he turned and passing Walter and Ryan, said, "Get him back into the car. He's on his way to the station as we speak."

Finding himself squeezed between two men of the law, the would-be gang member said, "Do you know what he did to me? He nearly killed me out there."

Walter shrugged hugely, shoving the young man into Ryan who held his ground. "If I had had you against that tree, you would still be there and wouldn't be breathing."

"Are you going to let him say that?" This was directed to Ryan.

Ryan's dark eyebrows shot up. "Say what to you? I haven't heard him say a word."

Then Ryan leaned into Soledad and whispered, "By the way, when you took the baby, did you notice the parents?"

Still in a fog of pain, the youth replied, "You mean the titty blond and the big dude?"

Walter looked down at the dark head and shook his head in pity.

Ryan paused only briefly before answering. "Yeah, well, that blond is a police officer and is very big on guns. She loves guns of any kind, loves holding them and especially shooting them. She's a crack shot too. Now, the big dude is also a police officer and is ordinarily a pretty nice guy but he's huge on family. Now, can you imagine what being in a room alone with him would be like if anything happened to their kid, the one they know you took? I'm betting you'd come out of that room in pieces and then they'd use them for target practice, if you get my drift. Now, think on that for the rest of the trip in."

The rest of the trip was made in silence.

Three hours later, the CSI team had discovered that the cream colored Cadillac with a Brevard County license plate ending in one, zero. It had been found abandoned on a side street in Miami. The owner, a Harold Braillsson, and his wife Annette, were missing. The car had been stripped down to the floorboards inside and even the engine was missing.

Dead on their feet, the team was sent home. All promised to return by seven the next morning.

Throughout the day, Horatio had checked his phone, looking for something, even a text message, from Solange. Now he eagerly opened the door to his home and was rewarded with a flashing red number one and a quiet beep.

"Hey, guess what? I'm back. Got a call from a client saying she would pay me triple if I could work her into my schedule ASAP. Lily said not to pass up an offer like that and sent me packing on the redeye. Not much to see in Moab anyway."

There was a pause and an audible sigh. "Anyhoo, again, don't call tonight since I'm probably in bed and then I'll be with that client tomorrow for who knows how long. I'll call your cell when I'm done with her. Don't answer if you are doing something good like executing little Jake's kidnapper. I'll leave a message, I promise."

He hoped he heard something in her voice that was more than information about her return. Horatio knew he was too tired to be truly analytical. He also knew he was probably hungry for anything that could mean she had returned to be with him. He feared her message meant nothing more than the friendly news of her return.

Not sure how or when it happened, Horatio was at Solange's house and she was in his arms. This time, his kiss was returned with a welcome fervor.

"I should never have left you." Her words were broken up with the kisses she was laying on and around his lips.

"I'm just glad you're back," he whispered.

He looked down and found she was undressing him. Smiling, he asked, "Do you mind?" He raised his hands up to the buttons on the front of her blouse.

Her throaty reply was, "Please, oh yes, please."

Within moments, they were in her bed. He didn't know what was going through her mind but he was fully admiring her. As often as he had seen her bending over him while administering massage to his arms, the back of his neck, his legs, somehow, her form without clothing was an entirely different and far more pleasing matter. Where before, due to the relaxing effects of the massages she was so good at, he could never have managed to raise his arms, even if he had dared, he now did so and found the skin of her hips as soft as he had found her arms when kissing her.

For a moment, she tried to massage his arms as she did when he was on her table.

"Here, kiss me," he pleaded.

She smiled and fell into his arms and covered his lips with hers.

Before he knew it, he was on top of her, inside of her, plunging, hearing her gasps of delight. At last, they were together and he was about to…

He groaned and opened his eyes.

The growing morning light startled him. He looked for Solange before he realized he was in his own bed. Had the event taken place here? He listened for the sound of the shower, for activity in the kitchen. He heard only the almost inaudible sound of his alarm clock by the bed. All a dream.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"We just got word that they found that doctor." Ryan was still blinking his bleary eyes as if he had just awakened.

Staring over his steaming cup of coffee, Horatio asked, "Did he have the infant with him?"

Eric, a little more alert than his shorter chum, chimed in. "Yeah, the baby is a little dehydrated but is doing okay. The medics figure he'll be ready to be released to CPS by late this afternoon."

Eric nodded at Natalia as she walked by the break room. "I have never seen Natalia take a drink of coffee no matter how early she comes in. How does she do it?" He shook his head and then continued, "I think I found where the baby's grandparents live."

"So you have names and addresses?"

"Yeah, some; the one dead girl, two of the girls and one boy. Some of the others are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome or at least, something like it. They think they were rescued from a worse life and were given a better one. They don't want to remember where they came from. The rest are more like a blank slate from one minute to the next, not even remembering they were held captive, not knowing why they are here, much less where they came from."

Ryan looked around the room as if seeking information. "None of them match any missing person's reports yet they're all young enough to have been living with family. Why weren't they reported missing? Who watches their kid walk down the street and then says nothing when they don't return?"

Horatio didn't feel like preaching on the lack of parenting skills exhibited by more than a few people. Ryan had been raised by two kind and loving parents. Part of it too was Ryan's OCD tendencies which included insisting that others live by rules he had been raised with.

Ryan's large hazel brown eyes searched the depths of his coffee cup still wondering. He knew that the rest of the team thought that he didn't understand lack of familial caring. He did; he had seen enough of it, including the case about the mummy a few years back. The man had committed suicide by starvation and no one had known about it. He had family that he didn't speak with, friends he gave up on and neighbors he never spoke with. The man had died and shriveled in his bed only to be found by a real estate agent after the condo went on the market for non-payment of taxes. Adults he could get, but kids? He wished he could something more than wonder.

After a moment, Horatio said, "Ryan, I want you and Walter to stay on McFee and the others from that place about the kids that are now missing entirely. Eric, I think you and I had better go out to the parents of the dead girl first." The inner parts of his eyebrows were already rising, leaving the outer edges down in anticipation of the sad difficulty ahead.

The journey to the City of Sunrise off of the 595 via the I-95 Expressway was relatively easy. The difficulty came in locating the Kenmar home. The address finally led them down a short dusty road to an old junkyard which, by all appearances was closed.

Horatio stood staring at the ground through his dark glasses, listening to the large metal gate vibrate after he had thumped his hand against it for the third time. There wasn't even the sound of a guard dog.

After a few moments of silence, he looked over to Eric, a few feet away and raised his brows.

At first Eric gave a small shrug and stared around at the corrugated metal fencing which gleamed dully in the bright sun. Then he looked over his shoulder and only when he spotted an auto body shop across the main road did he smile crookedly. He sauntered down the dusty path and returned a few minutes later. "I talked with the owner of the shop and he called Kenmar. He'll be coming to open the gate in a few minutes. The yard owner is on vacation and Kenmar is only the caretaker. He lives in a trailer in the back."

"How did you know to go there to ask?"

"Aw, c'mon H, as an independent tin man, I had to know all the tricks. Selling found wrecks wasn't easy."

They were interrupted by the squealing grind of toiling wheels as the metal gate rolled open.

The heavy voice belied the spare frame. "Ezra said you were police. I ain't never crossed the law so what would you want with me?"

It took a minute to convince the Asian American man that they had something to say to both him and his wife and that inside would be the better place.

Once inside the forty foot mobile home, at the back of the yard of jumbled scrap, Horatio almost immediately regretted the insistence. Although he could only see a few cockroaches, he was sure the furniture and appliances hid a multitude of the scurrying creatures. Perhaps they were attracted to the smell of grease from years of cooking, the unswept bits of food rotting in crevices, the filthy surfaces of every area.

Ignoring his rising gorge, he started in quietly. He brought out a picture of the dead girl found at the Clinica and asked if they recognized her.

The wife, Kim Kenmar, pure Asian by the looks of her, wailed, "That's my child, that's Olivia. What's wrong with her? She looks sick. Is she in a hospital? Has she got some god awful disease?"

"I'm afraid she's dead."

Horatio watched carefully as the two parents exchanged glances. He could swear Martin Kenmar looked relieved. Kim was harder to read. She squinted her eyes and pushed her chin up to her mouth. Finally she said loudly, "Oh, my poor little girl. How did she die? I'm so sad!"

"She died in childbirth, ma'am."

Suddenly Kim's sad face was replaced with one of genuine surprise. "Childbirth? But she was only thirteen when she left us. She didn't really like boys."

Although Horatio and Eric had talked about how to tell the parents the circumstances of their children's absence, they knew that each time would have to be taken one step at a time. How do you say, 'your child was used for breeding, like cattle'?

"We don't think it was her choice."

"She was raped?"

Horatio answered, "The choice of pregnancy wasn't hers."

The woman snarled, "And she always said she hated living here where it was safe!" Then she paused, as if remembering she was not supposed to be angry. "Oh, my poor little girl."

"We know you didn't report her as missing to the police. May I ask why?"

After a brief pause, she said, "Aw, she and I had an argument and like usual, she stormed off. I figured she went to stay with Martin's sister who lives a couple of miles off. After a couple of days, we saw Mary at the store and she said she hadn't seen her, but she always lies anyway."

Martin looked away from his wife and made a sour face but held his peace.

"So we just figured she was staying with her or someplace until now."

Martin came out of his lethargy and asked, "What about the kid she had? Did it live?"

Eric smiled broadly, "He's a fine baby boy."

"What are you going to do with it?"

Giving a quick look to Horatio, Eric continued with assurance, "I would think he'll be turned over to you as soon as you can talk to CPS."

"Is that where it is now? Why can't they keep it?"

Kim chimed in. "I'm just not sure we could take in a baby now. We're on hard times and all."

Only Eric took note of the changing tone in Horatio's voice. "There are services for families in need."

Kim spread her hands out as if to support her words. "Do we know who the father is? I mean, aren't rapists kind of crazy and all? We couldn't handle a crazy kid even if we had the money."

Martin surveyed the floor. "Or if he was one of those big ones, the fat kind, I can't imagine sharing my table with one of those."

"And we just don't have room for a crib. I mean, Olivia slept on the couch but we couldn't put a baby there."

Horatio rose and Eric followed taking a step to the door. Reaching inside his coat pocket, the red head pulled out a card. "This is the Child Protective Services number. Call the name on the card and talk to them about your grandchild." His voice was as hard as the look on his face.

Without another word, the two CSIs left the parents standing at the door to the trailer.

They were halfway to the next address before either could speak.

After that first time, somehow, the reactions of the parents for the rest of the day were no surprise. Only the stories differed, one had the temerity to utter 'good riddance'. Eric had to put a cautionary hand on Horatio's arm when that was said.

By the end of the day, they didn't even bother to take the offered seats. They told the single mother, surrounded by five children, that her oldest girl had been found, handed her a card from CPS and left. They were not interested in whatever histrionics the woman would feel necessary to display.

"You know, H, when I was talking with those kids, I didn't once get the feeling that they wanted to go back home, anyway. They were not happy at home."

"I don't think the new life they were brought into was what they had in mind for a change."

"I just hope they can get some help."

Horatio took a deep breath before he answered, "If they don't, they'll become our problem again one way or another."

On the return trip, while Eric drove, Horatio made a few calls and then announced, "There was no trace on the Cadillac yet and no one has spotted an older couple with a child."

"Do you think they made it out of town?"

"It's possible, Eric, but I don't think so. Something tells me they have somehow gone to ground right here in Miami. We need to find out more about them."

He made one more call and then he laid his head back and took a nap the rest of the way in.

He was so tired, he fell into dream sleep almost immediately. He opened his eyes to see Solange at the steering wheel. This seemed perfectly normal to him. "Where did you say we were going?"

"Oh, just out for a drive. I decided you needed to be kidnapped so I'm doing it."

He didn't have the strength to raise his head as he objected, "But I have to get back to the lab. I have to rescue little Jake."

"No you don't. You have a whole team to do that. I made it so you can't move and you won't until I say so."

Horatio was flexing every muscle in his body, trying to break from the mysterious bonds that held him still. Just as he felt he could move an arm, his leg seemed to spasm and when he got that to almost in working order, his arm was still again. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I can, Horatio. Just sit back and enjoy the ride."

Horatio was frustrated beyond words. A strand of golden red hair fell before his eye as he tried to struggle. "Please don't do this, Solange, not now, not with this case."

"If not now, when? You need rest and must be forced to. I don't want to be in charge here, honest I don't. I have someplace to go and here you are."

This was making less and less sense. He kept fighting the maddening invisible cocoon he was wrapped in. While doing so, he stared at Solange who was keeping her eyes on the road. He wanted to examine her face, look to see what emotions might be driving her to perform this insanity. He couldn't because she kept getting larger or was it that he was getting smaller?

He wanted her to look at him, to see that this was an important matter to him. Now he couldn't speak, would not plead. 'Look at me,' his brain pleaded.

The tires of the Hummer hit the cement drain ditch in the garage floor as it entered the parking structure under the building. The bump woke the struggling lieutenant and relieved him of his paralysis.

Eric smiled as he pulled the keys from the ignition. "Good nap?"

Horatio blinked, "Well, it was a nap."

A few minutes later, Horatio burst from the elevator, headed for the records lab where Ryan had been working.

"Have you found anything on the Cadillac or the couple?"

A touch of the virtual keyboard brought a picture to the transparent screen.

"Harold Braillson, a self-made millionaire. He was raised in poverty, the child of migrant orange pickers who were mostly put out of work by orange harvesting machines. He invented an improvement on the orange harvester and the rest, as they say…he made a pile of money from one little addition. He next tried to open nightclubs and every one of them never opened their doors. Apparently he didn't get that there are certain people in that business that you have to make nice to. In the process though, he met Annette Toluma."

Another picture was brought up beside Harold. "Another rags to riches story only it was her mother who made women's designer purses that became all the rage in south Florida in the seventies."

"After ten years of marriage, Anthony was born, apparently by in vitro fertilization. According to the hospital records I obtained, the pregnancy was difficult and the birth even more so with no chance of any further pregnancy."

Horatio's eyes had become an intense blue as they did when he was empathizing with the story of a child. "Let me guess; something happened to little Anthony."

Ryan turned to face his boss. "A car accident and a baby seat that had been incorrectly placed. The parents survived, little Tony died at six months old."

"And he had blond hair and blue to green eyes."

"Yeah. Now, let me add one other thing here. I have been showing you photos of these people as they were when Tony was born. Now, here's another ten years later. As you can see, there isn't a whole lot of difference. A lot of money and a little nip-tuck keeps father time away, as they say. And again, here they are seven years ago, pretty much the same. Then, I found one two years ago on the Great Friends' Page and they don't look happy to be having the picture taken."

The picture Ryan brought up was one of an aging couple with gray hair, jowly cheeks and wrinkles around the eyes. "Now, their finances have also changed. I called in a forensic finance guy because somehow, the numbers didn't look right to me. He said the money was being changed to offshore banks, first one and another and another, until the paperwork is so confusing there is no chasing it."

"Conclusions?"

"Nothing for sure yet but as a guess, I'm going to say they changed their identity. One thing about plastic surgery is that if you don't get it done regularly, age catches up with you. Looks can change fairly fast. So, instead of changing their looks with surgery, they let Mother Nature do the work."

"Any guesses as to where they went?"

"Until their looks change enough from that last picture, anywhere in Miami is my guess."

"As was mine. That leaves our only lead to be little Jake. Except for dying his hair, they can't do much to change his looks.

Horatio changed his stance. "Did you or Walter get anything from Ms. McFee on the missing kids?

"Not from her specifically. She indicated her head boy, Ruben, in charge of the care and feeding, might know something. We questioned him and he said he had nothing to do with those 'pieces of filth', that he was in charge of buying the food. With a little pressure, he finally admitted that Mikey was the one who took in the meals, and then cleaned up."

"Was he the only one?"

Ryan wondered why he was explaining everything so carefully when Horatio was three steps ahead of him all the time. "He had a helper, in more ways than one."

"An enforcer, so to speak."

"If I miss my guess, they were the ones who killed our empty lot girl. Her name, by the way was Kaila Skoal. We found her through facial recognition on several friendship pages from about two years ago."

"What do they know about the disappearances?"

Ryan's large eyes showed signs of beginning to well up. "Horatio, they're so damned callous! I mean, I get the feeling they would treat fighting roosters better than they treated these kids."

Steeling himself for the what he would hear, Horatio asked Ryan to elaborate.

"They said they only kept the boys until they were eighteen or nineteen, or as they put it, got strong enough that they weren't so easy to handle. Then they were put down. Can you believe it? Put down!"

"And the girls?"

"Ability to breed healthy children was the standard there. Of course, the fact that they nearly starved the girls between pregnancies and didn't do anything to keep them healthy in between wasn't a factor!"

"Settle down, Mr. Wolf. What did they do with the girls?"

Trying to compose himself, Ryan's face fought the emotion he felt. "Same thing, put down."

"Did they say how or where?"

"It was Dinty who did the dirty work. Once he realized that Mikey had thrown him under the bus, he was more than pleased to be graphic. They would throw a victim into the trunk of the car and then drive out to the end of the Tamiami Trail which is known to be an area for alligators. Exactly where they took them varied from time to time. They would take the victim out and then Dinty, who's a big guy, would come from behind and do a grab and twist which killed him or her immediately. Then they would just leave the body for the gators and drive off."

"Did Mikey say that Ms. McFee had ordered this?"

"I'll see what he says. He's been stewing since you called about getting info on the owners of the Caddy."

"Let me talk to him. You and Walter talk to Mr… uh what is Dinty's sir name?"

"Moore." Wolfe smiled and then said, "And would you believe he likes canned stew? Go figure."

Horatio smiled humorlessly. "I'll try to remember that."

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Mr. Moore, my name is Lieutenant Caine and I have a few questions to ask." Horatio stood easy on his feet, keeping his voice quiet and smooth.

"Hey, my life's an open book. I'm a bad ass and I ain't afraid to say it." The boy's Samoan roots were shouted out in his broad and tall body and Pacific Islander hints in his features.

"Oh, you are, are you?" His voice dropped.

"Yeah, wanna make something of it?" As he said the words, he rose, knocking the chair over to its side.

The officer standing outside was immediately standing inside.

Not changing the timbre or strength of his voice, he raised his hand. "Thank you officer, I don't think I'll you're your help."

As soon as the officer left, Horatio said as he spread his feet, looked at his shoes and raised his eyebrows, "I think you had better take a seat, Mr. Moore or I will have to treat you with a great deal less respect than I originally intended. I accept that you are a bad ass when you need to be, but when you are here, you don't need to be."

The large youth looked around for a moment before pulling the heavy chair up with a single hand and sat down. "Yeah? Like cops don't rough up prisoners? When are you going to arraign me?"

"I'm sorry to say it will be a while longer before you can go."

"So, what do you want? I thought I was done when the little guy didn't come back."

"That little guy is Detective Wolfe and deserves some respect." Horatio had maintained his wary stance and lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Yeah, anyway, I thought I was done." The broad lower jaw jutted forward like a pouting child's.

"You have admitted to killing several young people and leaving their bodies where alligators could get to them."

"Yeah, that's old news."

"Yes, it is. The new news for me is what you might have to say about the kidnapping you participated in day before yesterday."

Dinty put the heels of his hands on the table and showed the lighter palms as he spread his fingers. "All I done was drive the car. From the mall I drove to our house and then I got out and Marquez drove off with the kid squalling in the bag."

"Did Marquez say anything about why he had kidnapped the child?"

"Yeah, he said this was his 'in' to the No Somos Angeles. He had to prove he could make them money and this was it."

"Did he say how he chose the baby?"

"Ask him! I don't know." Moore's annoyance was obvious.

"I will, but I was hoping for some comments from you to help nail him."

"Look, cop, I'm going to die for what I done and I know it. I'll take whoever I can with me but I won't say what I don't know. Got it?"

Horatio looked up briefly and flashed a smile. "Oh, I think I got it alright. That's very noble of you. Did Soledad ever talk about kidnapping more babies?"

Dinty swung his lower lip to one side and then the other. "Yeah, that's how he figured he would be in good with that stupid gang. I told him he'd do better to get a few girls and womp up his own kids and sell those. That would have been less trouble, you know?"

Horatio stood looking at the young man as he began to chew a hangnail from an enormous thumb. "Did you get together with any of the girls at the house? Ever have any kids?"

"Do the breeders? Nah! I watched a couple of times while they were in bed with the stallions and they'd just lay there like they were dead. I want some life in my women. Why? You think you'd have had a good time with them?"

"On the contrary, I'm just hoping you never had children. It's bad enough that one of you walked the earth as long as you did."

With that, Horatio turned and left the room. As he passed the officer on guard, he said, "Get another officer to escort this one to holding. Use as many manacles as will fit and take no chances. Then bring up Marquez Soledad for interrogation."

He went up to his office to calm down. Usually, he forgot a criminal as soon as he walked away because he always had more work to occupy his thoughts. This one, however, had been so ruthless and callous, he knew he would never quite get the filth of the crimes out of his head. Yes, part of it was envisioning having to tell the parents about the fate of their children; well, the ones who cared. How could anyone not care about their children? He had seen it with his own eyes that day, heard the flat voices in receipt of the news as if they were hearing that the kitchen stove needed to be replaced. Yet, he wanted to believe that eventually, even they would mourn. He knew that hard times did hard things to people. He also knew that some people should never have children, that they just did not have what it took to care. That was hard enough to see. Now in the same day, to hear this young man relate how he had choked the life from perhaps ten or more young people and then had thrown the bodies to a congregation of alligators to be torn at, ripped to bloody shreds and consumed as food made his bile rise.

Thinking of what he needed to calm down, he thought of Solange. Too many rings later on her phone, he prepared his thoughts for a message. "Hey, I was surprised to hear from you and more than glad. Welcome back, sweetheart. I am at work, but I wanted to let you know I wish I was with you. This is one of those times I wish the world would go away and I had time for one of those great massages, a cup of relaxing tea, or short of that, just a few hours by your side. As it is, I'm still working the same case and it isn't getting any easier. Don't hesitate to call and leave a message when you can. Take care."

Not as good as hearing her voice but just thinking of only her for the few seconds it took to deliver the message was the break he needed. Pocketing his phone, he went to the window, and began preparing the questions he would be asking Soledad.

"Marquez, I think you and I are straight on how we stand now."

Dark brown eyes looked past the menacing blue eyes and through the glass walls to the activity of people beyond.

"What are you thinking? Do you want to change your story from last night?"

"I just want to be sure there's people here who would see you."

"See me? Of course they'll see me. We're also being recorded."

"You mean what I said last night wasn't recorded?"

"No, what you said last night was not recorded, but as a trained observer, what I report you said is taken to be nearly as good as a recording." Horatio then walked to the transparent table and leaned on it to get his face as close to Soledad's as he cared to. He then whispered, "I just don't have to say why you were so cooperative."

He stood erect and continued, "Indeed, all you told us was that you handed the child you kidnapped over to an older couple who were driving a cream colored Cadillac and you gave us information on the license. We have verified that information was correct."

The young man pulled his lower lip into his mouth to suck on the sole patch beneath it. He squinted his eyes as he said, "Yeah, so what more do you want?"

"Soledad, at this point, we have you for kidnapping. Ordinarily, that alone may possibly get you a life sentence. Since the child you took belonged to a police officer, you will almost certainly get a life sentence with no possibility of parole. The only way you can perhaps mitigate that certainty is to give up every possible bit of information you can remember."

The young man's frown deepened with every word Horatio spoke. He also slightly turned his body as if to ward off blows.

"That includes what the couple said when they came first to Ms. McFee, what they said to you before and then after. Besides that, I want to know where the money they gave you is."

"You don't want much, do you?"

"This is your choice; life in prison with no privileges and no chance of parole, ever, or life with perhaps some privileges and a chance at parole when you are an old man. It all depends on how much you give up."

Marquez shook his head as if trying to avoid a swarm of bees hovering over him. "Man! I don't know! I don't know! I can't remember!"

A soft vibration in his pocket signaled Horatio that someone was calling. "Soledad, I'm going to give you a few minutes to think about this. When I come back, I want to hear a dry rattle from your head because you have wrung out every memory you have from the minute you were born. Then I'll give you fifteen seconds to start giving me the right memories or I'll hand you over for arraignment and let the full extent of the law take you."

The vibration had ended before the lanky redhead reached the door. He walked around the corner and stood in the small alcove where the two way glass was located. Staring at the back of the kidnapper's head, he opened his phone and glanced down at the name that had called. As he feared, it was Solange. He hit the 'playback' button and listened.

The call started with what sounded like a sigh. "I hate playing phone tag but you did say to call. Since you're busy, I called Nat to see if she was available go out and have some fun and was told that she's at work too. Oh well, I'll have to settle for one of my other friends who aren't so busy. I did want to say though that I got to do some thinking about us. I do like you even though I know it might not have seemed like it from when you last kissed me and all. I think, if you're still ready, I would like to take this relationship to the next level. Think about that, won't you? Call when you have the time."

Ever since he had met Solange, he had known she was straightforward and honest. When they had started dating she had said she wanted boundaries and no meant no. She later talked of a tendency to leaping into what she hoped would be long lasting relationships only to find the man had a single, one time goal in mind. Having learned her lesson, she also said, she would let him know when she was ready. As trained police officer and a gentleman besides, he had no illusions about what a woman meant when she said no, or 'I don't want to do that', or stop, no matter what tone of voice she used. Not that he was used to being refused. He was well aware of his charms to women and he was always willing to succumb to theirs as well. Solange frustrated him as well as charmed him. Now he wondered if her remark about taking the relationship further meant going to bed. Watching the back of the stubble haired head of the would-be gang banger, Horatio shook his head at how often the timing of his life did not jibe with his job.

Forty minutes later, Horatio was calling a war council in the evidence room. He had not gotten very much from Marquez.

Walter asked, "Doesn't truth serum get more out of guys willing to give it up, but can't remember?"

Ryan answered, "We don't have the time to get legal permission and then set it all up."

"So, team, we go on what we have."

They did know that Marquez gave Jake to the Braillssons and had received a bag of money in return. He took this to the No Somos Angeles and was told he was 'in' on probation. If he continued to provide the gang with money, they would consider keeping him on permanently. Then he was embraced by them all, thus the exchange of trace of baby talc he had gotten from Jake onto the gang member's clothing. Then they all took off on motorcycles.

Walter added, "We typed a couple of the motorcycles by the tread and, sure enough, they matched reports of several that have been stolen over a few days. They must have had an order to fill."

Natalia concluded, "Unfortunately, that's all a slim connection since we can't place any of the Angels on the stolen motorcycles."

"The State's Attorney Office seems to think we have enough on them for conspiracy to kidnap a child as well as human trafficking. They will further investigate the theft charges and add them in if possible."

"Eric, since we have no idea what car these people are now in, we will need to go through the security cameras at the local toll booths. I have a feeling that they travel only when little Jake is asleep and perhaps put him on the floor of the car and cover him. The road blocks giving a quick look might not think to thoroughly search under things."

"You mean they are looking at the possibility of another car accident, killing another baby?"

"Eric, if they are treating Jake as I have outlined, these people are not thinking at all, except about themselves. Taking Jake is not having a baby, he is a thing to own."

Horatio turned to Natalia. "Did you find anything at all at the warehouse besides the motorcycle evidence against that gang? Was there anything to indicate that Jake had been there?"

"Not even the Cadillac tire marks so that part of the story jibes with what we have."

Horatio nodded thinking over the second conversation he had had with Marquez. "Would you believe his next assignment to complete his initiation into the Angels was kidnap another infant? Apparently the gang was going to open another business."

Walter hit the palm of one hand with the other made into a fist. "Horatio, can I take Marquez into a small room with no windows for about five minutes? Just five minutes? Or if not him, how about one of the Angels? I mean, selling kids? To just anyone?"

Ryan reached up and patted the six foot five inch man on the shoulder. "Big guy, we're all going to need to blow off steam when this is over. This case is the worst I've come across in a long, long time. Beating up on the perps, however, just isn't what we do."

Walter twisted in his frustration. "Aw, I know. I know! It's just wishful thinking."

"Walter, you help Eric with the videos of the toll booths."

Walter slumped, his round childlike features going into a pout.

Eric elbowed the darker man. "Hey, we'll set up a facial recognition program and then while we wait for it to run the toll booth cams, I'll beat you at video games."

Walter made a face indicating his disbelief of Eric's confidence. "You're going to do what to who? Let's go!"

"Natalia and Mr. Wolfe, you are with me on the remains of the Cadillac. We're going over it again with everything we've got."

Pulling her latex gloves over her hands, Natalia shook her head. "I still can't get over how cars are all used for the same purpose no matter how rich or poor or what the make is. Look at the trash!"

"Which makes this a perfect project for us. We know who owned the car and that they took little Jake so any fingerprints or evidence of the child would be redundant. We need new information. Let's hope the trash will be what we need, maybe even under the carpeting. Natalia, you start on the driver's side and work towards the other side."

"That will be easy enough since they even took the steering wheel."

"Mr. Wolfe, you take the back seat area and I'll take the trunk and wheel wells."

"Are we looking for anything in particular?" Ryan inquired while he dug out a small but powerful flashlight from his kit."

"For something that will tell us where they intended to go with little Jake."

"Ticket stub, hotel reservation, phone number…"

Natalia, already scanning the space where the driver's seat had been, joined in the litany, "map, receipt that indicates where they were going to live…"

"Exactly, even a piece of paper with an imprint." The crisp white lab coat didn't flatter Horatio's complexion nearly as well as dark clothing. Light reflected from it gave his pale face an almost ghostly caste and drained his eyes of color making him look like a piece of overcooked fish. But then, the car was filthy and, unless he wanted to wear dirty clothes for the next few hours, he had to put up with it. Not that he was into sartorial smartness on the job anyway, but for this part it definitely was not required.

Two hours later, Natalia called out, "Horatio, I think I found something."

Horatio was flat on his back on a creeper looking up into the caddy's third wheel well. He quickly pushed himself out and rose to his feet. "What have you got?"

"Doesn't this look like a rental agreement?" Natalia held up a light yellow piece of paper with faded writing. The receipt looked like it may have been sitting on the dash at some point. It had sure gotten a beating from the vicious Miami sun.

Examining the now delicate paper, Horatio could just make out the words 'plus security payment of', 'unit #', and part of the title 'Las Palmas de…'.

"You know what?" Ryan was looking hungrily at the paper. "I think I know how to bring out that print."

Natalia immediately spoke up. "Sulfide of ammonium could do it."

"And if not that, acidulated ferro-cyanide."

The two grinned at each other like school students on a chemistry project.

"Natalia, you take it up stairs, please. We'll finish up here."

"I think I got the first pass at the front area done. All of the junk is spread out on the table over there." She pointed and headed for the elevator.

"How far along are you, Ryan?"

"Almost, not quite. They threw most of the junk in the back. I found cash receipts for baby stuff from the last two weeks so they were planning to have a child in their lives. I wanted to get all of the stuff sorted out before saying anything."

"Although they will have some probative value, they won't get us nearer Jake. Keep looking."

"Eric, what did you find?

When Eric was very tired as he was now, his speech became halting. Whether that was the result of his brain injury or just him, he seldom gave anyone reason to question.

After licking his lips a couple of times while assembling his thoughts, he pointed at the image that seemed to be hanging in midair. "We ran a facial recognition program on every face that came through either way on any Miami toll booth. We finally came up with this."

He brought the hazy image into focus and then put up the latest photo available for Annette Braillsson. "I can't tell if that's a wig or if she's been letting her hair grow out naturally for a while. I also ran an advanced age program on the original photo and I'm sure it's her."

"And she's in a blue Nissan sedan. Did you run the plates?"

"It's registered to a Henry Brill. The address, however, is in an empty lot."

"They're not going to make this easy, are they?" Horatio's voice had dropped into the lower range since morning. This was his signal that he was working next to the edge of sleep deprivation.

Natalia slowly strolled in and yawned sleepily. "I got all of the print out of the paper that I could. There are over three hundred places in and around Miami that carry the name Las Palmas de something. Of those, two hundred plus are apartments, hotels, motels and throw in a couple of trailer parks. I got the unit number from the paper which was twenty-four and that cut the number down to just over a hundred. The signatures were Henry and Annie Brill and the amount was paid in cash including the security which means they are keeping a low profile. That left the signature of the manager."

Horatio was too tired to prompt Natalia. He stood waiting for the information."

"Unfortunately, all I could get on that was the last two letters, 'E' and 'Z'"

Walter had been sitting quietly in the most sturdy chair in the room. "Oh great! That gives us any of dozens of Hispanic names to choose from; Florez, Quinonez, Velasquez…"

Natalia interrupted sharply, "Yeah, we get it! I'm sorry, it was all I could do!"

Horatio cautioned, "Settle down folks. We are much closer to little Jake now than we were this morning."

Nat turned her bloodshot eyes to Walter who was laying back in the chair and examining the buttons on his shirt. "Hey, Walter, I'm sorry. I was out of line."

Walter grinned, looking up at Natalia. "No prob, Natalia."

"Unless anyone knows of a database that lists rentals with managers or owners, I think we're going to have to wait until morning and hope for the best for little Jake. We'll come back in tomorrow morning and start calling."

"Did you get anything on the car?" Walter asked.

"A few interesting bits from the wheel wells."

"Want me to look at them?"

"You know what? Let's all go home and get a fresh start tomorrow."

Walter looked around at everyone and noticed approving faces. "Uh, yeah sure. Sounds good."

Ryan held his arms out to his sides even with his shoulders. "I'm so tired someone is going to have to carry me. After all, I'm the littlest."

"I'll fix a rug for you in the corner, you'll be fine," Eric joked.

"G'night folks. I don't need to even talk it over. I'll see you in the morning." Natalia said as she hurried out the door.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

As he headed for his car in the garage, Horatio looked at his watch. He was surprised to see it was only a little after eight o'clock. The day had seemed so much longer. Disregarding that he felt as tired as if it was two or three in the morning, he dug into his pocket and punched the screen when it read Solange's name.

"Hey stranger."

"Hey yourself. I got your message."

"Oh yeah? I meant it too. What do you think?"

"I think you know how I feel about you. I have wished to get much closer to you on many levels for quite a while." His words tumbled out from him before he realized what he was saying.

"Do you have time to come over now?"

"Get the hot tub in your back yard ready. We'll go from there." Yes, a soak in the hot tub, that's what he needed.

He was at her house and in the hot tub before he knew it. He had shed his clothes and gotten in, settling into the soothing warmth. She hadn't gotten in yet but was preparing to. Horatio took a deep slow breath watching her remove her clothes. She kept her eyes on him making sure he was seeing her every move. This was more fun than any of the strip clubs he had enjoyed when he was much younger. He felt something for this woman.

As she slowly stripped, she winked and turned and flirted. She raised a shoulder and let a bra strap drop and then let the whole thing magically drop. She slowly ground her hips around as she skinnied out of her shorts, letting them slide down her muscular legs. She deftly stepped out of one leg and used her foot in the other leg to flick them to someplace out in the yard. Then she turned her back and stuck each thumb into either side of a pair of black panties that were so wispy they hardly could be declared clothing. Looking at him over her shoulder and smiling sweetly, she raised her eyebrows twice in rapid succession, then slowly inched the sides of this last bit of material down and down. At the same time, she slowly turned so that only her side was exposed to her observer.

"Hey, you, you're awfully silent over there. You want the full Monty or what?"

Horatio felt like if he grinned any wider it would meet in the back and the top part of his head would separate from the lower part. "Oh yeah, sweetheart, take it all off. Show me what you got."

Without further ado, she slid the last of her garb to the floor and stood upright with a, "Ta-da!"

Then, instead of just sitting next to him, she got into the tub and straddled him. Oh, honey, I'm so glad you are here." Her voice purred like a happy kitten.

He reached around her waist to steady her against the roiling water. "So am I. I have to admit I was surprised to hear your message. What brought this on?"

She pulled back in mock surprise. "What? Are you afraid I'm just having a hormone rush and might be sorry later?"

"Maybe something like that."

Solange looked Horatio straight in the eyes, depthless browns meeting sparkling blues. "Okay, let me try this one step at a time."

She reached up and placed her hands gently on either side of his face. She leaned forward and kissed him.

It seemed to Horatio that the kiss was enjoyably endless, growing more and more passionate with every second.

At first it was just lips touching lips and then tongues reaching tentatively in and out. In time the tongues were battling each other, winding and twisting, resting only when the other won ground and explored the conquered mouth. What seemed like hours later, she pulled back with a huge smile.

She pretended to think and then announced, "No, no sorrow there. Not one bit. You're doing good; keep it up."

"I'm glad to hear that. What's the next step?"

She leaned forward and offered a tightened nipple to his mouth. "I want to be enjoyed."

"I think I can answer that request with no problem." Horatio inclined his head to the piece of flesh cupped in her hand and gently took it into his mouth. If he had been paying attention, he would have noticed her rise up ever so slightly and heard a sighing, "Oh, yes-s-s."

As it was, he sank into the moment allowing his baser instincts to take over. Besides rubbing the nipple with his tongue, feeling the puckered skin against it and the much softer skin against his lips, he brought his arms up to her back and let them roam. He moved hungrily to the other breast as Solange threw her head back ecstatically with a high pitched moan.

Feeling the pressure against his hands, Horatio raised his head to look at Solange. His inquiring smile was met with a larger one.

He asked, "So, how did step two feel?"

Solange answered with a deep long kiss.

When she sat up again, she said, "I think the next few steps should be on drier, softer territory."

Horatio's hopes for what she meant were correct. Somehow though, the bedroom was anything, but what he last remembered. Before, when he had had to search her house at Natalia's request several months before, it had been plainer, functional, with only hints of the owner. Now it shouted female, lovemaking, and all of the thoughts that went along with it.

Not saying a word about the décor, Solange pulled Horatio to the heart shaped bed. The papier-mâché cherubs on the wall at the head of the bed ignored the couple. The red velvet bows on the side of the cover rustled quietly. The one red wall dully reflected the light from lamp on the bedside table. The other walls, each white with pictures of people in the countryside not quite making love, but obviously thinking about it, enhanced the reflection.

He looked at Solange for information and got only a smile in return. Her eyes were focused on his and the look on her face was one of playful hunger.

Forgetting everything else, he lay down beside her and took up what they had started in the tub. He softly stroked her still damp hair and kissed her. He felt her hands on his back doing anything but massage. He lowered himself so that he could kiss her breasts and enjoy the sounds she made as he licked the outsides, made circles around the aureoles with his tongue, gently squeezed and rubbed them.

As he tried to work his way down her body, she giggled and turned and nibbled on his muscled shoulder. Playfully forcing him onto his back she ran her tongue over his neck and down into the light fuzz on his chest. Her mouth found the smaller nipples there. Her ministrations to the vestigial bits brought a deep chuckle from Horatio's throat.

"Do you like that?"

He pulled her up and hugged her. "More than I can say."

Hands from both parties began to roam, to probe, to feel. Breathing quickened, moans and sighs interrupted the sounds of mouths on flesh. Nothing was said while volumes were expressed. The movements became quicker as desire heightened.

Every few moments, each checked the eyes of the other as if to gauge the meaning of what was to come. Neither one hesitated to launch the next step.

Finally, there was no checking, no stopping, only normal human sex drives meeting, rubbing, penetrating, needing.

Horatio had no doubts as he reached climax…

And again, he woke up in his own bed to the soft burr of the alarm.

He had no recall of how he had reached home the night before. Obviously he had. His jacket was hung with care as were his slacks. The rest of his clothing was dumped in the corner of the room as usual.

The memory of the dream faded so fast, he had no time to analyze it. He knew it was pleasant and was about having sex with Solange. Well, why not? Her message had excited him. Was it really a dream?

One look at his ragged looking face in the bathroom mirror told him he hadn't had enough sleep again so there was no doubt; he had not seen Solange much less had any sex. The reality was cruel.

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"We have got to stop doing these eighteen hour days!" Walter exclaimed as he hunched over a cup of coffee.

Natalia had arrived in the break room to find the ordinarily cheerful giant of a man looking hollow eyed and a bit pale.

"What?" asked Natalia with mock indignation. "Last night we left at one so that only makes about a fifteen and a half hour day."

"Yeah, well, I stayed an extra two hours." He leaned back in an arm raising stretch making the chair groan. The yawn he roared out had everyone looking for what wild animal was loose in the lab.

Natalia grinned, "Oh, well, that's on you, fella. What were you doing?"

Walter bent his head over his coffee and inhaled. Not finding any buzz in the aroma, he took a drink before saying, "Horatio talked about finding some stuff in the wheel wells and I was curious about what it was."

"And?"

"Well, considering the Braillssons were in the Cadillac when they were looking for a place to stay, then they were in the Hammocks area. Some of what was in the wheel wells was the leaf from something called a crenulated lead-plant which is endangered and only grows in areas recently drained."

"And the Hammocks area could qualify for that."

"Yeah, and the cincher was a leaf from a plant called the pygmy fringe tree, also endangered and also found in areas that were swamp at a recent time. The Hammocks is the only place in the Miami-Dade area where both plants are still growing."

"Then if that's where the receipt is from, all we have to do is find a Las Palmas de whatever in that area. Wow! Great work Walter!"

Walter had risen to wash the cup in the sink. He answered over his shoulder, "If I wasn't so tired, I'd think it was worth it."

Natalia smiled craftily. "Okay, then when we find it, you don't have to come with us to go get little Jake."

Walter turned resolutely. "Oh yeah? Try and stop me."

"That's the spirit." She turned to see Horatio enter. "Horatio, guess what?"

After listening to Natalia, Horatio turned to the near sleep walking man, "Walter, you went above and beyond. Thank you."

"Ahh, think nothing of it, H. I don't think I could have slept much anyway."

Horatio smiled. He mentally thanked heaven for giving him such dedicated people. "Alright then, let's go do a map search in the AV lab of the Hammocks."

Eric joined them, looking more gray and tired than any of them. "Hey, how's it going?"

Everyone took note of the lack of shave on the face and dull eyes but said nothing.

"Just remember," Horatio admonished them, "as bad as we feel, Calleigh and Frank are doing worse."

Even that plain truth didn't make Horatio himself feel any more energized. They were all on their last legs with no guarantee their efforts would pay off. Kidnapping cases that went on for this long usually did not turn out well. That kind of reality, when it came to an officer's family, was especially hard to take.

Ryan entered the lab to find everyone at the computers. "So, what are we looking for?" he asked.

"An apartment complex, a trailer park, any place with twenty-four units or more that goes by the name Las Palmas de something in the Hammocks area. If we find more than two, then we look for one managed by someone whose name ends in 'e' and 'z'."

Almost two hours later, the frustrated team was thumbing through phone books, looking at newspapers for ads for places for rent, anything. They had come up with nothing named Las Palmas de…anything much less one with more than twenty-four units in the computers.

Closing a phone book with a thump, Walter's face resembled that of a child who woke up on Christmas morning and had found nothing under the tree. "I don't get it. Those plants point to the Hammocks area. I sincerely doubt they would have gone there to play a round of golf!"

Horatio had already stood aside, his blood shot eyes searching the floor for what was wrong with the theory. The placement of the plants thrown up into the wheel well of the car by the spinning tires coincided within a day or so before the kidnapping and before the car had been driven to where it had been stripped down. People didn't just drive out to an outlying area like the Hammocks for sightseeing when they were planning a kidnapping. The name 'Las Palmas' was so common it was everywhere from restaurants to apartments to…He shoved himself upright. "Natalia, let's take another look at the receipt."

Natalia ran for the evidence locker. A minute later she returned holding out the plastic bag with the red tape on it.

As Horatio laid it flat on the table, everyone gathered around.

After a few moments, Horatio pointed. "Look at the placement of the words, 'Las Palmas de…'. The line of letters dips in a half circle slightly below horizontal. Is it possible there would be other letters above them?"

Ryan was first to explode out the words, "Street name! The name of the place is gone and 'Las Palmas de…' is where it's located!"

Everyone headed for the computers as if a race had been declared. Ten minutes later, it was Eric who found the location that met all of the requirements; an apartment complex with twenty-five units on a street named Las Palmas de las Princesas.

Horatio punched the phone numbers on his cell. After two rings, a man answered.

"Hello, who am I speaking with?"

The answerer replied, "I am the manager, Dietrich Jimenez. Are you calling about renting an apartment? We have several available."

"I might be interested. I just wanted to be sure I had the correct phone number. I might be there today. Thank you."

"I will be available. My unit is the first one you come to as you enter the courtyard."

"Thank you." Horatio folded his phone and raised his eyebrows to the team. Inside, he felt a surge of vitality. Hope at last.

Half an hour later, after several phone calls that would guarantee a SWAT team would meet them a block from the apartments, the team was on their way in the Hummer.

It wasn't often that drivers on the road were treated to a parade of police vehicles. The CSI marked Hummer was led by Yelina in her unmarked car and followed by several patrol cars. All were driving with lights and sirens and hell-bent-for-leather until they were two blocks from the address. Then all went silent and they drove at a more sedate pace for a few seconds.

One of the SWAT teams had arrived first. All the men had deployed from the tank like truck and stood at the ready. On the way, Horatio had thought up a plan and informed the leader of the SWAT team.

"Lieutenant, second time in two days. More of the same?" The man's face showed no emotion.

"I'm afraid so. We suspect a pair of kidnappers are holed up in that apartment complex down the street. Just to be sure, Detective Boa Vista and I are going to go in first. Ostensibly, we'll just be a father with his daughter looking for a place for her to move to. This way, we can locate unit number twenty-four as we walk the grounds. Also, we'll be sure this is the place through conversation with the manager. Once we're certain, I'll call Eric and he'll hand it over to you so we can talk. Understood?"

Sergeant Lido nodded sternly and turned away to get into the black tank like truck where the rest of the men were sitting.

Both Caine and Boa Vista pocketed their badges and handed their holstered pistols over to Eric. He, as next in command, would hold them until the two no longer needed their cover.

"Be careful, these two could be armed."

Natalia widened her eyes as well as her smile. "How could two people innocently looking for a place to live be shot at?"

Almost caught off-guard, Eric nearly retorted how when it came to kidnapping, the situation was always dangerous. Then, realizing Natalia had a too innocent look on her face, he smiled and shook his head, keeping his silence.

Twenty minutes later, the manager, who introduced himself as Dietrich Jimenez, was talking as if Natalia wasn't there. "Is she looking for a studio or a one bedroom?"

Natalia pretending she wasn't offended took a look at the L-shaped building. "I'm more interested in an upstairs on the outside, if possible. I like to have a view." She pointed to the second floor apartment on the end of the building."

Keeping his eyes on Horatio, he said, "I'm sorry, that one is occupied. The couple just moved in so they won't be moving soon. We have two very nice units, a one bedroom upstairs and a studio next to my unit on the ground floor."

A small child ran laughing and screaming from one of the ground floor units, followed by a woman with a baby in her arms. "Rafael! Get back into the house!"

Looking at the strangers, the child obeyed his mother and returned to her. She looked briefly at them and smiled at the manager before closing the door.

Natalia smiled brightly. "Oh, are there many children here?"

"Only in that unit and the one you said you wanted. They have a baby."

Horatio asked quietly, "That would make two younger couples. Are there many? I mean, is there much loud noise? When there are a bunch of younger people, it can make, um, studying a bit difficult."

"Actually, the couple with the very young baby is quite mature. You know, graying hair and all." The man glanced at Horatio and then looked away. "There are all ages here and The Parrot Grove is a very quiet place."

"I see. That could be alright then. Excuse me for a moment, please. Natalia, why don't you go take a look at the studio apartment while I make a call?"

Inside the apartment, Mr. Jimenez was taken by surprise by the show of the badge.

"Hey, what's this? There's nothing wrong around here."

"Well, there might be. We think that elderly couple with the baby is wanted by the law. Now, it's about to get noisy and maybe dangerous around here so I suggest you close up your office, lock the door and then lock the door to your living area and stay there until we call you."

"But how can you do this? Do you have a warrant?"

Prepared, Natalia took the search warrant from her jacket pocket.

Two minutes later the manager's office door was locked.

Suddenly, the front of the apartment was swarmed by the waiting police vehicles. They came to screeching halts while the SWAT team seemed to appear from nowhere.

Outside, armed once again, Horatio went first to the apartment where the small children lived. His urgent knock was answered by the wide eyed mother. After telling her to take the children to the bedroom farthest from the front door and to crouch near an inside wall he said, "I'll knock loudly four times on the front door when it is safe."

At the same time Eric, Ryan and Walter were running from door to door warning anyone who answered to get inside and as far out of harm's way as possible.

Meanwhile, the SWAT team were covering the parking area in back of the apartment as well as aiming their rifles at the door upstairs. All of them knew about the child inside and none had any intention of shooting anyone besides an adult and only if absolutely necessary.

Given a signal from Horatio that all the residents had been warned, the crack riflemen ran up the stairway leading to the middle of the second floor balcony. The metal guardrails hummed to the beat of the steady tempo of the stamping feet.

Finally, with four of the heavily armed men lined up beside the wall to the left of the door, Horatio stood at the right with his pistol in hand. He knocked loudly and announced, "Harold Braillsson, Annette Braillsson, open the door. This is MDPD."

The man with the hand held battering ram paused for a count of two and then hit the door at the handle so that the wood holding the latch was shattered and the door popped open.

Horatio followed the four men who spread out over the unit like a black fog, covering every square inch with their rifle sites.

Five minutes later he was saying to Yelina, "Clothes gone, everything. In fact, I doubt they ever moved in."

A few questions to the manager about whether he had seen boxes, a moving van, any kind of activity other than the couple carrying the child in confirmed it. "Funny that I never even noticed. I mean, after a few years of managing apartments, you get a nose for funny business, you know? I guess I should have thought about them being so old and having a baby and all. But, well, sometimes the grandparents have to do what they have to do." He shrugged as his face worked at receiving new knowledge.

"And you never watch TV; connected the missing kid that's all over the news with this couple?" Eric asked menacingly.

Jimenez retorted, "All I watch is sports. Commercials come on and I go take a piss or get another beer. I didn't even know about a missing kid."

"Eric." Horatio used his cautionary tone. Ordinarily, Eric was a calm and contained man. Now like everyone, he was on a ragged edge.

As the group started to head to the street, the manager spoke up, "Hey! What about the door? Are you going to pay for that?"

Horatio returned and absently fished a card out of his inner jacket pocket. "Call this number in a couple of days. My report will have reached them by that time. Tell them Lieutenant Horatio Caine told you to call them."

Horatio started towards the street again fully expecting other questions to follow him from the manager like what was he to do meanwhile and how long would he have to wait to be recompensed. For whatever reason, he reached the sidewalk and walked away with only silence behind him. For this, he was more than grateful. He was so bloody tired!

On the way back, everyone speculated on how the couple knew they would be traced.

"Do you think they remembered they had left the receipt in the car?" wondered Ryan.

"Maybe they hired some professional help in planning this. Normal folk don't think about missing receipts. A pro might cover all bases like that." Walter posited while he stared out the window.

Eric turned from his front seat position to ask, "You mean a pro like a former secret agent or something? They could afford one, that's for sure."

Ryan's forehead formed folds as he shook his head. "The question we need to answer, is where they are now?"

Eric continued, "Well, if we go on the secret agent theory, we can ask, 'how do they hide people in witness protection programs?' I mean, that's what the government people would do. Don't they?"

Natalia said, "Let's not forget these people have money enough to do pretty much anything they want. I think we have to go wider than government funded program ideas which, in the face of really big bucks, are pretty puny."

The Hummer pulled into the garage and everyone except Horatio piled out. "Eric, you lead the brainstorming upstairs. I like the way everyone was thinking."

"Where will you be?"

The sadness in the lined face spoke before the voice. "I had better go apprise Frank and Calleigh of what's going on."

Eric slumped at the idea. "You're not giving up, are you H?"

The shake of Horatio's head was not very believable and he knew it. "Of course not Eric. We're at an impasse right now, is all. If you come up with anything, call me."

"Well, I'm happy to push 'til I drop."

"And that may be part of the problem too, Eric. We're all worn out from long, hard days. We may have to slow down and use our heads instead of chasing our tails."

Eric smiled for the first time that day. "Maybe a little restful meditation for everyone would help. I know I could use something. Well, whatever will get little Jake back."

"You'll all come up with something. I'll return in a couple of hours." Horatio put the car into gear and drove off.

Thirty minutes later, the door opened before he had the chance to ring the bell. He knew that Frank or Calleigh had seen the large vehicle and knew he had come on official business of some sort.

Seeing the haggard face, the tilt of the head, the lowered eyes, Frank exploded, "What the hell are you guys doing? And Horatio, don't say 'everything we can'. I know that line and I don't believe it even when I say it."

Horatio stood silently. Working with stressed out people in the general public was difficult. Working with stressed out fellow cops was dangerous.

Frank stared down at his friend for another ten seconds. Finally he grunted and said, "Alright, come in and try to calm us down." His edged tone said he was ready to explode on the least provocation. He stood back and opened the door wide to allow Horatio to enter.

"Thank you. I appreciate this." Horatio knew he didn't ordinarily have to follow protocol with his friends but now it was probably a good thing to do.

He was led into the living room. Calleigh's old couch still stood in the center with the addition of a large wooden rocking chair facing it. The rest of the large room was filled with a variety of baby furniture, two of each.

Calleigh was seated in the rocking chair with Frank Jr on her lap. She didn't rise but looked up solemnly, her large green eyes burning out of dark circles.

Frank sat heavily on the couch and leaned his elbows on his knees. "You didn't come here to give us good news so all you want to do is fill us in on the failure."

Calleigh leaned over, holding Frank Jr, and put out a cautionary hand towards her husband. "Frank, let Horatio talk. We want to know what's going on. Have a seat Horatio."

Frank gave Calleigh a look of acceptance and hung his head down.

Horatio took the far corner of the couch and turned a quarter to speak to both of the parents.

"We now know who kidnapped little Jake, and we know he handed him over to an older couple. The couple lost a child about twenty years ago and apparently couldn't conceive again. For whatever reason, they didn't adopt and chose to go the illegal route. They have money and have eluded us twice. We're sure they are in Miami and what with the BOLO out, can't leave either."

"So that's why there hasn't been any ransom call?" asked Calleigh.

Frank bolted up in anger and shouted, "Is that all you've got? Our kid is somewhere in Miami? Period?"

"Frank!" Calleigh called out. "This is better than not knowing at all where he is. There's a good chance he won't be taken out of Miami as long as we keep pictures out there."

"Oh yeah? If they've got money, then they have a boat or a private plane. Who checks on that?"

"We've investigated, Frank, and no, they don't."

"See, Frank? They're doing their job."

Frank threw himself on the couch and buried his face in his hands. Between the cracks came the mumbled words, "Lord, God grant me the serenity…"

Though the words trailed off, Horatio waited until Frank lowered his hands. He knew all too well that prayer was not always said aloud.

The bereaved mother pleaded, "Horatio, just say it, please. It's been more than thirty-six hours and we know the chances of a child being found alive after that."

"Calleigh, we have too much evidence to say that your baby is alive and well. This couple wanted a child and they took yours. They are incredibly selfish and misguided, but I don't think they will harm Jake. I know it's taking too long and at the same time, I know we will bring him home to you at some time."

"Oh, Horatio, I know you will, it's just that…that…" Calleigh lowered her head to kiss Frank, Jr.'s head. She had no more tears to shed.

"I wish I had better news. I just didn't want to have nothing."

Frank stood slowly and stuck a hand out to Horatio. "I'm sorry Horatio. I know you've been busting your tail on this. I wish it was better news too. It will be, one day. I know that." He shook Horatio's hand.

"Oh Horatio, you look so tired. How many hours has it been since you slept?" Calleigh's southern twang wound through her words.

"I sleep every night, Calleigh."

Calleigh smiled gently, "Horatio, you look like I felt for the first month after the twins were born. I bet the rest of the team doesn't look much better either. Look, it's okay by me if you all get some sleep tonight. It sounds like you don't have any rocks to look under right now and no leads so why sit around and beat yourselves up?"

Horatio smiled at the woman who was ordinarily his second in command at the lab. "Thank you, Mom, that sounds like good advice."

Calleigh smiled where she ordinarily would have laughed.

Heaving himself into the silver vehicle, Horatio was too aware that he had committed the sin of omission. In describing the Braillssons as selfish and misguided, he forgot to mention they had been careless of their own child's welfare and thus the death. More, the two were suspected of being equally careless of Jake's welfare, possibly driving him around on the floor of their car, covered in blankets. That extended Jake's time for certain, but did not guarantee his life.

Ordinarily, the team would have noticed a brighter step in Horatio's pace as he entered the evidence table room. As it was, they merely acknowledged his presence.

"Has anyone come up with any theories yet?"

Ryan shook his head, "Nothing we can act on. If they hired someone to take them undercover, the how and where would depend pretty much on who they hired. This isn't exactly a common MO so we have nothing to go on."

Walter leaned on the table as if bathing in the light from below. "We all took a crack at the trash from the car. Except for the timeline of cash receipts for some things, we didn't find anything else to go on."

Eric pushed himself up wearily from the counter where he'd been leaning. "You know, Marquez hasn't seen me yet. I could try to wring something else from him. Maybe they said something about where they were going to head for."

"Eric hold on, you can do that tomorrow. Let's all head home early. This is actually a suggestion from Calleigh. We're swatting at flies right and not getting anywhere. We don't have any positive leads for the moment so let's get some real rest, come back tomorrow and we'll take another run at it with fresh eyes."

Each team member looked at the other as if judging whether this was a good idea.

Horatio surprised them all by not waiting for a consensus. He turned on his heel and walked out.

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Horatio knew he was not dreaming this time because the drive to Solange's home in the late afternoon seemed like it took forever. His call to her to ask if he could come over was met with a noncommittal 'sure' followed by a click. That alone made the drive longer. Then, when he arrived she did not fall into his arms though the kiss she gave him was warm and inviting.

Drawing back from him, Solange quipped, "Horatio, you look like you were rode hard and put a way wet, several times."

"Yup. Never had the saddle off, neither."

"I'd offer a soak in the tub, but as bad off as you look, you'd pass out and slip under the bubbles before I could do anything about it."

For sure, this was not a dream. "I came primarily to find out about those intriguing words you left on the message yesterday."

"You didn't get the phone message at home last night?"

"Uh, I must have missed it. I'm in and out of the place anymore."

"First, let me ask, how much sleep you've had in the last few days?"

First he told her about not having found little Jake. Then he said, "Calleigh already told me how bad I look. I feel worse."

"I thought so. Are you expecting any calls, have to go back to work?"

"What have you got in mind?"

"First for you to get some sleep. You're coming into my bedroom and I'm going to give you a relaxation massage. When you wake up, you'll feel like you've been asleep for three days instead of a few hours."

"Are you sure? I feel like I could use about fifteen hours."

"I know what I'm doing." Solange pulled the taller figure down the hallway.

The bedroom was calm, serene, and rather plain as he recalled it should be.

"Please strip down to your shorts." The tone was a polite order.

While Horatio sat in the chair at the dressing table to remove his shoes, Solange went to the head of the bed and pulled the pillows off and threw them to the floor. Then she pulled the covers back and threw them to the floor.

"When you have the clothes off, lay face down on the bed. I'll be back in a jif." She left the room, heading down the short hall and around the corner.

Now Horatio began wondering if this was indeed another dream. A massage on her bed? Hadn't she once said that no massage should be done on a bed?

No sooner had he made himself comfortable, he heard her return. At her approach to the side of the bed where he was facing, he opened his eyes and was surprised to see a flash of leg.

"I haven't done this kind of massage in ages. I have to be on the bed beside you, is that okay?"

"With an introduction like that, I'm curious to see what happens next."

"Not to worry, you won't be conscious in about ten minutes."

Horatio felt her crawl onto the bed and felt the warmth of her bare legs folded under her at his thigh. He was fairly sure he would enjoy the experience.

"This is done with powder rather than oil and I'm going to sprinkle some on now."

The lightest of feather drops drifted onto his back.

"Take a deep breath and let it out."

Until that moment, he hadn't realized he was holding his breath. It was almost difficult to breathe in but letting it out was a release of what energy he had. Then he felt a light finger touch start on either side of the base of his spine. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the fingers lightly drew up to the base of his neck and across to his shoulders and back down his sides.

Softly, her voice a tone lower than usual, Solange said, "Now to help you relax, I want you to see if you can envision the word 'red' in the brightest color of red that you can. This is red of the reddest red you have ever seen. The word is block letters and all there is."

She paused speaking but her hands drew slowly down to Horatio's waist, across to the base of his spine and up.

"Now, change that word to 'orange' and the color to the truest orange orange there is. Envision the word in that color. You can surround it in orange, drown it, float it, however you like. Think the word 'orange' and see that color."

As her hands drifted, so did Horatio's mind following the words, seeing the colors from orange to yellow to green, and blue. If she asked more of him, he wasn't aware of it. His mind had drifted into a pleasant haze.

Somewhere around the time she asked him to roll over onto his back, he was barely conscious. Once he had figured out how to pull himself out of the mattress and make the move, he felt himself again sinking into that delicious haze again. The haze quickly became the blackness of dreamless sleep.

Solange knew she could probably ease herself from the bed and just let the man sleep without continuing the administration but her sense of doing a job right was too keen for her to resist. Besides, she liked the warmth against the side of her leg.

This was to say nothing of how much she liked him. She was fairly sure he liked her back and with the same intensity. She knew she had been right to wait. 'Holding out brings them close, faster', was what she had been told over and over. She wondered where she had gotten the idea that if she had sex with a man immediately, held tight to him like ivy on a tree, the man would respond in kind.

When it did work, she found the man to be too dependent on her, needy in fact. There was Fred. On their second date he took her to an affair where several people he knew attended also. He had introduced her to them all as being the best thing that had ever happened to him. This was two weeks after they had met. Later she realized he would have cheerfully ridden in her pocket if that were possible. As she got to know him better, the less appealing he became. She tried breaking up with him and he sent her atrociously huge bouquets of flowers, showed up at any social event she attended until she relented. Finally, she moved.

Too often, however, she was the one deserted.

She sprinkled powder over the pale arm admiring the shape and form of it as she did so. Now, here was this man. He treated her with professional courtesy when working, politeness when out on a date, sweetness when alone. She could tell he wanted to be with her but not just to meet his physical needs.

Not that she had planned for this evening to start off this way. She wanted this man in her bed but not this way. Solange took a deep slow breath and let it out slowly. 'Calm down, lady, this isn't the time to think on those lines'. Here silence and relaxation had to reign above all. He needed this.

Twenty minutes later, she eased herself from the bed and quietly opened the closet and found an article of clothing and laid it on the chair by the dressing table. Then she picked up Horatio's slacks and jacket and shirt and took them to the bathroom. After hanging them, she turned on the shower to full hot and closed the door behind her.

Then, going to the living room, she did some stretching to counteract the protracted time of being curled up by the man. Having done this, she went to the kitchen and opened the freezer, retrieved a container and put it into the microwave leaving it to spin on defrost.

Having set the teakettle on the stove, she lay on the couch and closed her eyes.

She woke to find the house dark. The power had gone out!

'If Horatio gets up with no lights on anywhere, he is sure to get hurt stumbling around.' She touched her way down the hall to the bathroom door and felt for the light switch. Pressing both the on button and then the off button several times she accepted the futility of the effort.

'Okay', she told herself, 'I'll do it the hard way.'

She reached for the small free standing sink and then felt for the toilet. Here she found the small box on the top of the tank. Taking out a match and striking it, she sighed in relief at the light. Before it burned out, she applied the lit end to the small candle she kept used in there. Picking up the candle, she then walked to the bedroom to see how Horatio was doing.

The bed was empty and he was not in the bedroom, anyplace. She turned in a panic and searched the house. She even went outside and walked up and down the dark street. His car was gone. Had he driven his car? How could he not?

Running back inside, she inanely checked the voice mail machine. Then she ran back to the back yard. The darkness back there seemed to swallow the light from the candle. "Horatio!" she called. She called louder to no avail. She ran over the hot tub but it had the cover on. She could tell it hadn't been disturbed since she had last place it there.

Not knowing what else to do, Solange sat in the chaise lounge, peering into the dark, listening for the sound of a mellow voice asking what she was doing out here.

A bird warbled distantly. Solange opened her eyes.

Rising, she padded her bare feet softly down the hall. To her great relief, Horatio lay on his back, one arm thrown over his head. He was snoring softly.

A moment after he had closed them, or so it seemed, Horatio opened his eyes. The lamp next to the bed was on, there was no light coming through the windows behind the drawn shades. He saw light coming down the darkened hall and heard soft clinking sounds. Somehow, time had passed yet he had no memory of a dream or even of being asleep.

Rising, he saw his clothes were gone and another piece of clothing in their place. He wandered toward the sounds.

"Oh, good, you found the robe! I hung your slacks and jacket in the bathroom along with your shirt and undershirt."

He had found her in the kitchen stirring a pot that emitted some tempting smells.

"What time is it?"

"About seven-thirty or so. How do you feel?"

Fully awake and all questions answered, he replied, "Like I've been asleep for a couple of days."

"Darn! I messed up. It's supposed to be three days' worth!"

Horatio smiled as he gently took her chin and raised her head. "Good enough." He kissed her lightly.

"Dinner? Got beef soup and some rolls."

At the sound that rumbled from behind the tie at Horatio's waist, Solange laughed, "I hear the beast roar its hunger. That's a yes to dinner."

Dinner conversation was her talking about her trip, the sights, her friend, and so on.

After everything was washed and put away, Horatio was surprised when Solange led him into the living room and not out to the back yard. They sat on the couch facing each other.

"Okay, now we talk about the message I left you."

"Very intriguing."

Solange bowed her head. "I think you know why I have been holding you at arm's length."

"I think so."

"And I thank you for your patience. At our age especially, not many men want to date a woman for this long and not get into bed with her."

"I admit, the idea has crossed my mind." Horatio wanted to reach out to touch Solange. Instead, he waited to follow her lead.

"Part of the reason I went to Utah was to talk this over with my friend. She is a wise woman and I wanted her take on my thoughts."

"And?"

Solange lifted her head, her face wreathed in smiles. "Basically she told me I was acting nuts at this point. She said, at first, it might have been a good idea, but to wait so long, when I was so sure of who and what you were, was stupid. She practically packed my bags for me when I got that call from that client. She said to not waste any time, to call you as soon as I arrived. So, I did."

"And so I show up and you give me a massage that puts me to sleep for three and a half hours?"

Solange giggled as she stood up. "Hey, I'm totally ready to jump your bones m'dear and I didn't want you yawning in my face while I did it."

Horatio rose and looked down into sparkling brown eyes. "That would have been the last thing I would ever have done with you."

Something in Solange's face changed as she answered, "Yeah you're right there."

Before she could possibly change her mind , Horatio bent down and pulled Solange to her feet. He took her in his arms and finally kissed her like he had wanted to kiss her for several months. He held her body closely to his, tentatively invaded her mouth with his tongue until he was sure this was what she wanted and then fully tasted the delights she offered.

When he let her go, she had a smile on her face. "Yes," she said.

"Yes, what?"

"If that wasn't a request to go to bed with me, I'd like to know what was." She chuckled and then took his hand and pulled him excitedly into the bedroom.

Minutes later they were happily wound in each other's arms, exploring the other's naked body.

Her breasts were round and firm and even more delightful than Horatio's dreams had portrayed. In fact, each part of Solange seemed more delightful than the last, no matter how many times he returned to examine it.

Another difference from the dream was that she, for the most part, laid back and let him have his way with her. She responded by moving her body for easier access, murmured approval, and occasionally pulled him closer but that was it. Only when her breath came faster and faster did she finally demand, "Now, Horatio, now!"

He could no more have stopped himself than he could have stopped a speeding train and yet his mind cried out to beware of waking.

There was no danger in that. The release was an explosion of his senses. By the time he could focus his eyes again, he was aware of giggling. It wasn't his own.

"Oh, that was incredible!"

He smiled and turned to whisper in her ear, "How did you know?"

Solange turned and gave him a long hungry kiss. "I was there or have you forgotten so soon?"

Just as Horatio wrapped his arms around this fabulous woman, they were interrupted by a muted jangling.

"Hey, I thought you said you weren't expecting any calls."

"I wasn't. Is it yours?"

"I turned my phone off."

"I'm sorry." He rose from the bed to find his phone.

An hour later, Horatio was standing in the morgue facing Alexx Woods once more.

"What have we got, Alex?"

"I know this is all supposed to be handed over to Police Detective Fargo but I also know this is forensics' bailiwick, Horatio."

"Where did you get the bones?" Horatio gazed down at a skull and what appeared to be arm or leg bones. The connective tissue had not entirely fallen away. Dirty bits and pieces of tendons and ligaments clung on here and there.

"They were found by a fisherman over by the Tamiami Trail. Why anyone would fish where alligators are known to gather, I don't know."

"Some people consider the sport not so much in the catching but in the not being caught."

Alexx shook her head. "And they wonder why M.E.'s are so busy!"

"I'm guessing the cut marks on the bones are from alligator teeth?"

"Out there it's to be expected on body parts. However, take a look at the neck bones still attached to the head. These are the C1 through C4."

"And you are finding something wrong here?"

"Look at how the tendons and ligaments between C3 and C4 are torn on both sides. That's a kind of damage that would kill a person."

"How could this happen?

"A very strong person has to take the victim from behind and then twist the head with a sudden jerk."

"This, then, was no accident."

"Oh, Horatio, do you think this one of the kids that's missing from that house of horrors?"

"The location is right according to the confession."

"If you go look for more, I want to be there."

"Be ready at first light then. Those kids don't need to be thrown away like that."

"I'll bring plenty of nice clean bags. They deserve the best no matter what shape they're in now. Not after what they went through"

"Thank you Alexx."

Horatio's long legs took him to the elevator and up to the lab. He asked one of the night officers to bring Mikey up from holding.

An unhappy Mikey Freeman looked up though his eyebrows at Horatio.

"Mikey, since Dinty was taken to court for arraignment and is now in county jail awaiting judgment on his confessions of murder, it will be up to you to fill me in on some details."

"Go to hell."

Horatio was quiet as if he was considering the option. "I might meet you there eventually. Until then, I want some information. I already know your part in the murder of those teens you held under your control. All I want now is full details on where you took the bodies. Dinty told me about that area at the end of the Tamiami. Where else did you take them?"

"What difference does it make? Why are you making such a big deal out of it? They're gone!"

Horatio stared down at his fingers and raised his eyebrows as he spoke. "Mikey, answer my question and you might, just might not have to spend life in prison without any chance of parole. Am I making myself clear?"

Another long silence induced Horatio to raise the stakes. "You know, I'm not sure where in the prison food chain your crime falls. Child molesters are at the bottom and usually don't live out their sentences. I'm not sure that cannibals last that long. As for people who throw people to alligators as food, well, Mikey, what do you think your chances would be?"

"Can you promise I'll stay alive and maybe get out sometime?"

Horatio turned his side to Mikey and looked down at him. "No promises, but I'll see what I can do if you cooperate. Without information, the right information, I'll throw you to the legal alligators and walk away, if you get my drift."

When Horatio had what he needed, he put out an alert which would be picked up the next morning by several divisions of MDPD.

Finally, he stood alone in his office, staring out of the window. He looked down to the shiny wet star set in the pavement in the roundabout at the front of the building that held both the MDPD and CSI Lab. The reflection from the street lights sparkled in the drops of the recent rain. There were times he stood in this same place and looked at the same scene and was very glad to be who he was, where he was. Now, he wasn't seeing the star or the lights. He was only mentally ticking off what was needed for the next day.

When he came to the end of the list for the third time, sure he had left early morning calls for everyone that would be needed, he lifted his head and 'came to'. He had been on automatic ever since he got the call from Alexx; gotten dressed, driven to the lab. Each event had triggered the next. Now, there was nothing to do until daylight.

Horatio lifted his eyes to search the darkness above the palm trees surrounding the building. Solange had asked specifically about whether he had 'time', whether he expected any calls. Had he ever answered her question directly? But then, she understood the nature of his work, didn't she? On the other hand, though the love making had been wonderful, what had he done as soon as he was finished? He had answered the phone and run out like a customer runs out on a street girl!

He stopped himself, shaking his head, denying that interpretation. No, he had run out to follow a lead so he could nail a murder's hide to the barn wall. Horatio's head tilted to the side and his eyebrows folded into a tent over his nose. He had had to do it, had to!

His mind went back to what Solange had often said about why she had said no to intimacy between them for so long. She had rushed into it many times before and then had been abandoned in the same kind of rush. He had replied, 'you mean, trust, then verify I think' to which her face lit up and she had said, 'yeah, I guess so'. Hoist by his own petard.

Horatio hurriedly pulled his cell out of the pocket and looked at the time. It was past one in the morning! Too late to call her now. Slowly he leaned forward until his burning forehead met the cool glass. 'Damn! Damn! Damn!

He decided to go home, catch a few winks and be ready for the next day.

Oddly, in spite of the restful sleep he'd had earlier, he fell asleep right away. No dreams of Solange this time; instead, he wandered a foggy swamp in search of Calleigh's child. In the roiling mist, he could just make out large gray trees garlanded in Spanish Moss. He wasn't alone and yet no one was nearby. He was calling Jake's name over and over. He could hear others calling the infant's name from the distance. He felt his feet sloshing over wet ground, crushing the grasses and plants as he moved but he didn't look down, didn't dare look away from the distance where Jake might be. The feeling of urgency was overwhelming.

Suddenly he heard a far voice calling, 'Horatio! Here! I found him! I have him!' Horatio tried to run and found himself being slowed down by the bog, the swamp, the wet, the grasses, everything. He struggled, strained and couldn't make any headway. The voice kept calling for him to come.

Then, strangely, in a different direction, another voice called with the same words, 'Horatio! Here! I found him!' While he strained to find a direction for the second voice, he heard a third voice, even more distant than the others. Finally, he tried to call out, 'I'm here, bring him to me' but his throat seemed to seize up and he could only whisper hoarsely. Two more voices declared a finding. Horatio tried to answer and failed.

There was only one thing left to do. He had to shoot his pistol to make noise that would draw the people to him. Good, but at what? Shooting into the air was dangerous. His next thought was to point the gun at himself, at his head. He didn't question why it wasn't a good idea, he only sensed it was not. His thoughts wound through several options until he came to shooting it at the ground. Perhaps he could kill an alligator as well? He looked around. There were none that he could see. Too bad.

He fired the weapon at a patch of wet ground about four feet away and prepared himself for the ear shattering report. Instead, there was a fizzling, buzzing sound. He fired again and heard the same sound. He looked down the barrel of the gun and saw only a round, dark hole. From deep inside, he thought he heard more buzzing. He pointed the gun away and fired again and finally, woke to the sound of the buzzing alarm clock.

Quickly forgetting the dream, he prepared himself for a body hunt.

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

High ground was hard to find in Florida and impossible to find in the glades. Horatio decided to commandeer the roof of one of the Medical Examiner's vans for the project. From there he could see the cadaver dogs, their handlers, the police cadets clad in wading boots with their poles, the uniformed officers ready to respond to anything the cadets found, the ME crew headed by Alexx, as well as his own team. The helicopters were already in the air using special instruments to find disturbed ground.

The night before, Mikey had told him that they had dumped all of the bodies in this one area because of the history of the large number of alligator attacks. The one area, however was the stretch of the Tamiami Trail that was over five miles. Mikey thought he remembered their favorite area being about marker nineteen but he wasn't entirely sure. Based on that hazy memory, Horatio centered the search scene there.

Earlier that morning, he met with his team. "Once we have covered this immediate area, Mr. Wolfe, I'd like you and Walter to slowly take the search west. Eric, you and Natalia will go east. Block off each area and be thorough. We don't want any of those young people to be left out here if we can help it."

Walter expanded his chest a little, his eyebrows falling around basset hound eyes. "I worked briefly with one of those alligator experts. He taught me a thing or two about how they feed and what happens to an animal from the time it is attacked to the time it is all gone. I hate to say this but, I don't think we're going to find much. Did you know gators can digest bone and everything?"

"Hey," Eric objected. "I was with an expert once and though we were catching the crocs over by the nuclear energy plant, he said we were dealing with a close enough relative to be the same. That day, we were looking for evidence, found the croc we wanted and shoved a hose down his gullet and came up with a whole foot, shoe and all plus I don't know what all."

"Sure, you can force a gator or a croc to regurgitate what it ate shortly after a meal, but left on its own, it'll eventually digest everything. I'm just saying, after all this time, anything small enough for it to swallow is gone now. The only thing we can hope to find now is whatever wasn't eaten and hope it's enough of each person to identify them. The gators can't swallow anything bigger than their throat so they rip the body apart by twisting. The only good thing is they're not much at cleaning up what's left."

Natalia, looking a little green around the gills, put up a hand, "Stop! We get the picture, already."

Horatio put a foot forward to interject both physically as well as vocally. "We'll recover what we can. The area will be marked for continuous searches in the future. What we come up with today will predict how upcoming searches will be conducted. Just be sure everyone has a rifleman within ten feet. That should be one for every five people in the field."

Natalia's eyes widened. "I thought the helicopters and the rangers had shooed the gators out of the area."

Ryan's eyes twinkled at what he was about to say. "Really Natalia, do you think a twenty foot, two hundred pound gator is going to run from a noisy bird in the sky and a couple of air boats whisking around? Better safe than sorry, no?"

Natalia pulled her pistol out and checked to be sure it was loaded. As she did so, she eyed her surroundings as if a huge reptile might launch itself at her from under one of the vehicles.

No one warned her that if she expected to kill an alligator with a glock she would have to remain cool and fire at the base of the skull from behind. They all knew Natalia's capacity for remaining cool and could only hope she would be saving someone else and not herself.

Horatio then turned to see Yelina, dressed atypically in overalls and wading boots. She stood with some men dressed in like attire. "Yelina, I'd like you to coordinate with the Park Rangers and their divers in the deeper areas. I think we have three airboats at our disposal today."

She nodded. "I guessed the 'gators would take food to the shallows near the road. I'll be sure the divers go through that area. I'll send the airboats to survey the hummocks. Maybe some body parts were dragged out there."

Horatio nodded. "Call if you find anything."

Yelina smiled at the familiar reminder.

Now, up above everyone, on radio to the 'copters, handheld walkie-talkie to the ground crews, Horatio shouted directions to the ones nearest him. Nearby, he saw Alexx in her usual pose, standing, leaning back ever so slightly, her arms folded, her chin set down as if ready for the worst news in the world. Alexx was an anomaly in that she was an excellent ME and that she hated death. Beside her and in other areas, great sheets of plastic were laid flat on the ground ready to receive what was found. He felt a chill at what he knew would be an ugly sight in a few hours.

Then he heard the first whistle from the cadets. At nearly the same moment, the infrared instrument interpreter in a whirlybird called saying to look at the ground on the south east of a tree grove near the highway. For the next forty-five minutes, whistles and radio communications shouted for attention, dogs barked or howled a find, all calling the ME crew hither and yon. When the clamor slowed in an area, Horatio directed the group to inch their way over to another sector. Once, twice, the report of a rifle briefly quieted everyone until a call of 'Got him' rang out. Slowly, the plastic sheets became littered with pieces of human bone and flesh. Looking down with some distaste, Horatio noted that the bones were primarily skulls and parts of torsos while there were few legs and arms.

After four hours, lunch was called. When Horatio noticed how many were just sitting in whatever shade they could find, looking discouraged, with only water bottles in hand, he called out, "I want everyone here to get something to eat, even if it's only some cheese and crackers. You've done a great job so far and I need the same great performance for the rest of the day. You can't do it without fuel so please, eat." Feeling a presence at his side, he knew it was Alexx.

"Sweetheart, you spoke a very nice piece there. Now, just why don't you have any food in your hands?"

Looking down at her folded eyebrows and the toothy grin, he tried to think of something that would get him out of having to 'eat' his own words. Failing he smiled and said, "Okay, Mom, I'm heading to the roach coach now."

She tugged on his sleeve to redirect him with a deep chuckle. "I brought more than plenty. You know you like my cooking so come fill up a plate."

He followed her more than willingly. Having often dined at her home with her husband and family, he had a score of savory memories. He didn't wonder at how she had brought soup and kept it hot or at the fresh-from-the-oven rolls. That was just part of the complexity of the woman he no longer questioned.

After lunch, the day became a monotony of whistles, dog barks, radio communications and calls. Alexx decided there was no way to match any of the bones and sadly filled the body bags with what was found to clear room for what was to come. The crew folded up sheet after sheet and spread out new ones.

Finally Alexx called up to Horatio, "Do you have an idea as to how many of those kids were tossed out here?"

"I was told perhaps twenty or twenty-five."

Folding herself in for a moment and taking a shuddering breath, Alexx stood straight and replied, "Well I have eighteen skulls, thirteen female and five male. One male skull isn't a teen though. The sutures have melded and that shows the age to be over twenty-five or thirty. Didn't you say none of the kids were over eighteen or nineteen?"

Horatio stood tall and examined the skyline for a moment before answering. "Alexx, we're bound to find other mishaps out here."

Alexx shook her well-coiffed head. "That's what bothers me Horatio. When do we stop looking?"

"Today will have to be it for us. There will be more hunts. This kind of search is too expensive to be repeated."

"I think the families who want peace of mind would disagree."

"Alexx, if you had met some of the families as I have, you wouldn't say that. We're doing this for the kids. They all need a decent burial. That's after they have given us the answers that will put those bags of human waste that put them in the swamp away for a very long time." By the time he came to the end of his sentence, his voice had reached a murderous growl.

"Then I'm going to leave now. We have one van filled and I'm going to go back and start on analysis and run some DNA. My men know what to do for the rest of the day without my help."

"We'll be in after dark. Drive safe."

"Always."

As he watched her drive off, his mind was already working on how to arrange for a continued hunt. Getting enough evidence to nail Dinty and Markey was primary. Finding all of the victims so they could be decently put to rest was, unfortunately, secondary.

Horatio didn't feel the need to hit the showers when he returned to the lab. After all, he had been on the van all day, not dealing with swamp and decomposing bones. Although it had been hot, he was had not been bothered by the suffocating air. He was able to 'give in' to the heat, accept it, take it in and relax. As long as he had covered his face, neck, and hands in industrial strength sun block, he was fine.

His first stop in the lab, therefore, was the morgue.

"Alexx, I hate to bother you but do you have anything?"

Alexx didn't look up from the table covered in bones. "Never a bother, Horatio. Yes, I found two more skulls with attached neck vertebrae and they both showed signs of having been ripped apart. I also have four female pelvises and all showed signs of multiple births. Because of the wear and tear pregnancy can cause to the bone structure, I can't be sure of the pelvic age yet but I'm working on it."

"Any trace I can take up to the lab?"

"Only one alligator tooth. Found it embedded in a shoulder blade." She picked up the small container and handed it to the golden redhead. "I don't know what you can do with that."

"We'll find something." The bushy eyebrows bounced a couple of times over the bright sky blue eyes.

Upstairs in the evidence layout room, he met with the CSI team. "I want to thank you for all of the hard work you put in today. Alexx says her prelim work is already revealing results that will nail the lid onto Dinty's coffin and I'm thinking Markey's as well."

Eric looked up through his eyebrows. "Can I be in on digging the graves?"

The silence in the next few seconds was worse than the ticking of a life clock. Everyone knew what they had not found all the victims that day and though it was a relief to not think about the fate of Jake for once, it was also about the worst undertaking they had had to do in a long time.

Knowing what was on their minds, Horatio's voice sounded as sad as his expression. "We have done everything we can on this case. Now we have to return to other work."

The room was as silent as if it were empty. Eyes flicked to others, to the floor, to Horatio.

Not to worry, we're going to keep renewing the BOLO on Jake. We haven't given up and we never will. We want everyone in Miami aware that we're looking for Jake and that couple. The Braillssons or Brills or whatever they call themselves will never be able to leave town and we'll always be on the watch for them."

After a few minutes of mourning silence, the team members slowly drifted out of the room. Watching them go to their stations to pick up work that had been piling up, Horatio knew that not one of them would stop thinking up a way to track this shape-shifting couple down.

His own deep thoughts slowed his walk up the short flight of stairs to his office. Inside he closed the door and turned off the lights. This was not for privacy but rather to give him the feeling of being alone, looking out at the world.

The team below noticed the darkness and watched the shadow place himself at the window by his desk. Their attention turned to their own matter because they knew from past experience that the lights would remain off for at least as long as their shift lasted and the figure would move little, if at all.

Usually, when a case was over and ready to be turned in to the State Attorney's Office, Horatio took a couple of hours to go over everything in his mind from the procedures used to collect the evidence to the analysis, from the handling of those they had arrested to the questioning and any confessions they had made. His team had the highest conviction rate in the state and he worked hard to keep it that way.

This time, his thoughts were somewhat foggy. He kept trying to draw a curtain across Jake's place in his mind while he dealt with this case but the curtain just would not stay put. The image of the double stroller with one child missing kept creeping into his examination of the facts of the other case. Calleigh's tear filled green eyes floated here and there. Frank's angry, puzzled expression over the insult dealt to him, a cop, wandered in and out.

For the first time since his rookie days as a detective, Horatio finally gave up, turned on the desk lamp and started physically writing out the details of the breeding/murder/kidnap case. In doing so, the faces he had come to love faded into the background for the time being.

A knock on the door interrupted him.

"Lieutenant, a Ms. Messing brought this boy in to see you."

"Tovi, what are you doing here?"

The blond haired, dark skinned child walked in boldly. "I just had to know; is my mom going to jail? Am I ever going to see her again?"

The quiet conversation between man and boy went on for over two hours. Horatio had had many conversations with his own son, Kyle, in the same vein about his own mother. Indeed, he had had conversations with several children about the crimes committed around them.

Oddly, he found that the kids understood far more than they probably should have. Tovi had known instinctively that what his mother was doing was wrong though he could not say how. The primary puzzle to kids was how they could be deprived of the only custodian they had ever known. Children, in their egocentric place in the universe, looked at being deprived of a caretaker they loved as punishment, not as the caretaker's penance. Kids saw things in black and white and Tovi was now concerned with his own fate. Though he had known his mother's activities were harmful to others, he wanted things to be back the way they were. He didn't want his life to change.

"Tovi, I want you to think back to last week when things were normal for you."

The green eyes flicked to the left and slightly down.

"Now, suppose your mom had said one of your relatives was visiting. Can you imagine who that would be?"

The pale eyebrows lowered over the eyes and then rose as a smile appeared. "Yeah, I guess it would be my uncle from out west."

After a bit more probing it turned out, Tovi's uncle was in Nevada. Horatio summoned the waiting Ms. Messing up the stairs and explained Tovi's concerns and the possible solution.

Her face lit up like a Christmas tree at the idea of possibly being relieved of at least one case from her back breaking load. "We'll see if we can find him and start the investigative procedures immediately. If he proves he is willing and able and can provide a caring environment, we'll bring him out here."

Tovi's face, for the first time since Horatio had met him at the crime scene, was bright and happy. "Thanks H."

Ms. Messing's voice took on a warning tone, "Tovi, mind your manners."

Horatio patted Tovi's shoulder. "My special friends call me that and Tovi and I are special friends now."

Ms. Messing took Tovi's hand and hurried off to avoid any further gaffes.

His phone rang. It was Fargo.

"So, when are you and your team going to get back on the job?"

"We were never off of the job, Detective."

"I mean the job you handed off to me then took back without so much as a by your leave."

"I'm pretty sure we were working together on this case, Detective. As a matter of fact, it's been solved."

"And I don't have a single report to show for it is."

"And you want reports from who?"

"From your team. I tried to get something from the night crew but they said as long as you were working it they weren't going to try to outguess what you'd done or not. I haven't seen hide nor hair of the evidence box you gave me since."

If Horatio had a crested spine, his back would definitely have been breaking through the back of his jacket by that time. He paused, trying to judge just how far this man would be pushed. "I apologize for not keeping you in the loop. Uh, do you really need the reports for your work?"

"Hey, you handed it all over to me."

"I realize that."

The pregnant pause was painful for Horatio and he hoped it was at least uncomfortable for Fargo.

"Look Lieutenant, I don't want to be a pain in the ass but I got brass to answer to just like you do. I didn't ask for the box but you gave it to me. I handed evidence to the night team and I guess you got it from them, right?"

"I believe you called at some point and we agreed we were on the same case again."

"No, you agreed and then added you were on a kidnap case and couldn't be bothered to fill me in. You left me in the dust and now I'm looking to be filled in."

When he had to hand cases over to Frank or Yelina, the idea never seemed like a chore, just part of procedure. This man was turning it into a distasteful project. Well, sometimes you got to bite the bulldog and sometimes the bulldog bit you. "Yeah, you'll get the reports. Thanks for reminding me."

The click ended the tension.

Finishing his notes, Horatio turned off the desk lamp and headed downstairs, through the near empty lab, and to the elevators. A few moments later, standing by his car, he checked the clock on his phone. It was almost midnight. He checked for messages and found none from Solange.

Later, in his condo, he checked for messages on his phone and only found the one left three days before.

After a brief shower, he dressed in a short robe made of silk, decorated with palm trees and parrots on a black background. After making himself a drink of scotch whisky on ice, he stepped out onto the balcony. The breeze that came up from the south wafted over him bringing a wet lock of hair down onto his forehead. Absently brushing it back, he leaned his elbows on the metal bars and looked out at the light dotted ocean and horizon. There plied a variety of ships and pleasure craft, all with partying occupants. In the black sky beyond lay clouds that disclosed their presence only when one exploded with a burst of silent lightning.

Taking a sip from his glass he tried hard not to think of the short, spunky woman that had recently rocked his world. Did she understand that he would have called if this had been any other case; that if solving one might solve the other and bring a member of his extended family home he couldn't think of anything else?

His mind switched sides as easily as he changed clothes from day to day. She had told him that most of the previous men in her life had taken a relationship so lightly as to think nothing of having sex with her a few times with no communication in between. Usually they left her after a few dates. If she called them on their behavior, they got mad and then left. She also admitted to 'falling in love' too easily. Her words were, "I forget to check if he is coming to me as fast as I'm going to him."

He had fully intended to show her how he was worth the trust she was showing in him. The first time that night was fun and experimental and a release from pent up desires. Next, he wanted to tell her, show her how he felt the in the same evening. He wanted to show her he could make her the most satisfied woman in the world, not once but as often as she needed. Before he could do it that damned phone had gone off. Her howl of dismay when he started dressing, though understandable had rattled him as well. Part of his intimate life was the joy he took in pleasing the women he cared for and yet, this time, he had run off at the first ring of the bell. Now, how was he going to prove he was any different than the fools who had taken advantage of her so far? Could he recover that first spark she had allowed? Was that the reason for her silence now?

Even though he stood with his back to the city of Miami, even though she was behind him somewhere, he continued leaning forward, staring at the sea and whispered, "Solange, have patience with me for I am only a fool of a man."

He finished his drink, turned, went into the house and went to bed.

TBC


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

No one in the lab was at their best the next day. Everyone had come in, hoping that special clue, that the one lead that would take them to little Jake would be sitting on their computers, on their desks, among phone messages, someplace. This time, not even false leads waving pretty little fingers of false hope were anywhere to be found. There was plenty of work, plenty of it. There were other cases to be caught up on yet, the sense of the unfinished affected them all deeply. In the first few hours, the entire lab team stumbled into each other, tripped over each other, bumped, and dropped files.

Horatio went over the reports on the evidence that came to him, one by one. He wrote out his summary, filled out the forms, and signed them. As he did so, he was constantly distracted by the erratic movements below. He knew how they felt. He was spending twice the time as usual on the paperwork because he was constantly turning to his computer to check the latest BOLO reports, to check some stray fact he hoped he had not checked three times already.

He knew he and the rest of the CSI team would soon get back on track. Right now, it was just very hard to accept the fact they had not found Jake. Tragedy this close always hit the small group of people very hard. However, just as it had been hard when they had lost Speedle, they had eventually recovered. Horatio knew that in time, Calleigh and Frank would return. Everyone would greet them cheerfully and then spend another day or perhaps two stumbling into each other, their minds on the wishes that they could surprise Calleigh with finding her boy. Then, the lab would return to normal though everyone knew that Calleigh and Frank would not be normal ever again.

Occasionally, between looking below and completing the paperwork, Horatio put his forehead to his tented knuckles and thought about the message he had left that morning.

"Solange, first, I want to apologize for my bad behavior. You opened yourself to me in more ways than one and I did exactly what other men have done, I ran out. Sweetheart, if there was any way I could take us back to that moment, I would have spent time explaining what the big deal was. As for not calling you yesterday, there is no excuse and you have every right to feel insulted. I just hope you aren't insulted enough to give up on me.

"Tonight, unless I hear from you otherwise, I'll be at your front door at six-thirty. I'll leave my phone in the car this time. I'll bring dinner from that Brazilian restaurant we found last month. I'll fill you in on what I can of the case. In short, I'll do anything it takes to get back into your good graces. I'll be checking my phone every half hour today for any messages you care to leave, and pick up any calls. I do care for you, Solange, more than I have cared for anyone in a long time."

He was almost sure there was nothing else he could have said. The only question was, had he overdone it? After hearing Solange's background, why she had never married, he occasionally pictured her as a young deer in the forest. The only defense a deer has is speed and quick response; the least alarm will send it running. He thought he had tamed her, had calmed her to trusting him and then that phone call from Alexx had forced him to do exactly what she feared most; he left her bed still warm from his body. Could she ever believe he was anything but a predator now? Would she think of his words as just another attempt at a con? Maybe yes, maybe no, he would see.

Later that morning, Horatio stood outside and watched the parade of suspects from the 'Breeder' case being herded onto two buses; the women on one, the men on the other. He kept his eyes more closely on the men to be sure none of them made a break for it. The county jail police were watchful but an extra pair of eyes never hurt. He thought he saw some disturbance on the women's bus. As it pulled away, Reba McFee was looking out, trying to catch sight at something behind the bus, banging on the window's iron screen. She was pulled from the window and the bus continued on its way.

His eyes moved to what Reba might have been looking at and he saw Tovi and Ms. Messing coming out of a car with a man.

Tovi waved happily and then pointed, "Hey H, this is my Uncle Nick!" He pulled the stocky man forward.

The man's broad smile slowly spread across his face as he stuck his hand out. "Hi, I'm Nick McFee, soon to be Pap Nick for Tovi here. We're going to the office with this here lady to get the paperwork going."

"Did you know about Tovi?"

"Yeah, but not about the other stuff. That Reba is sure full of surprises. I guess I'm going to have my hands full making things right for my little man here."

"He's a fine boy, Mr. McFee."

Nick dropped a gentle hand onto Tovi's shoulder. "I always knew he was."

"He has a lot to overcome, you know."

"I'm learning about it. However, soon as we get the paperwork done and all, we'll be headed off to my little ranch in Nevada where he'll have my family giving him all the love and care he can handle. He'll have his own horse too."

Tovi's smile was brighter than Horatio had seen since he met him. Horatio called out, "Don't forget to write to me, Tovi."

"I won't forget, H. Bye"

The little group turned to leave. Before she could get into the car, Horatio pulled Ms. Messing aside.

"I know the service investigates prospective guardians well. Are you sure about this Uncle?"

As if ready for the question, the woman quietly rattled off information. "He is a disabled army veteran of the sandstorm operation, he is married with three children, and has a horse ranch dedicated to helping other veterans through association with his horses. Yes, Lieutenant, we did our due diligence here."

The redhead graced the woman with a rare smile. "Thank you for the reassurance. My mind will rest easy now."

Ms. Messing's smile was a silent 'told you so' before she got into the car.

Then, another car, this one old and worn, pulled up. From it, a man and a woman got out looking about as if searching for something. At about the same time, another car, parked on the other side of the parking circle in front of the building. It was even more dilapidated and older than the first. From that car another couple got out and both advanced up the steps of the building looking around as they did so.

Both couples walked up the stairs, looking around.

"Can I help you?" asked Horatio.

The shorter man of the four with about two days' growth of beard on his face spoke up. "Yessir, if you would. My wife and I got a call a couple of days ago saying you might have our grandchild."

The other couple nodded while the woman added, "Yes, us too."

The short man continued. "Our daughter disappeared about eighteen months ago, you see. We reported it but she was never found."

The other couple nodded again. "Our Didi went missing two years ago."

The husband in the second couple added, "We just don't get that she had a child. She was only fourteen when she went missing."

Removing his dark glasses, Horatio fondled the earpieces with both hands while he spread his stance. He spoke as quietly as he could. "Folks, I'm Lieutenant Horatio Caine of the CSI lab. If you would follow me, I think I can explain."

He took the four worried parents up to the lab and into one of the larger interview rooms. Once they had been made comfortable, Natalia came in to take DNA samples.

While analysis was being run on the swabs taken from the four mouths, Horatio groped for the words that would make the horror their children lived through seem less so. "There is no doubt their experience has changed them. It will take time and professional help. You can only hope they find their way to some semblance of normalcy. As soon as we know which child is yours…"

"But I'd know my baby!" One woman cried out.

"I'm afraid this is a legal matter. It's also quite likely your own child won't recognize you; the experience in the last several months has been that bad. We want to match up DNA and be absolutely sure."

Both women tried to deny Horatio's words but were gently hushed by their spouses.

"Once we have a match, you will be escorted to the Child Protective Center and they will give you material on dealing with any problems you might have over the next period of time."

Later, watching the two couples get into their cars, Horatio inhaled deeply. As he exhaled, he tried to throw off the disgust he felt for those people on the bus. They had caused these four and so many more to hurt beyond belief. True, many of the parents gave the word a bad name, but, thank God, these four were not among them. One thing for sure, people like this gang, headed by Rebah McFee, guaranteed that he would always have a job. Yeah, what a way to make a living! On the other hand, the hope he and his team and provided for the people like the parents that had just left made the job more than worth the effort. The feeling caused him to put his hands to his waist as he looked up at the sky. Yeah, all in all this was turning out to be one of those good days.

There would only be one thing better. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked for any missed calls or messages. He had his phone on ring so it was unlikely he had missed her call but he was known to get so involved in the task at hand he really went deaf to anything else. No, no missed calls. He was certain that if he had missed a call from Solange that would be the death knell to their relationship. He would have to work on catching calls, that was for sure. No missed text messages either. Surely she would text even if it was to tell him to go to Hell. He hoped no news was good news.

Upstairs, after checking in with the different CSI stations to check on progress, looking for comments or questions, he stepped up to his office and dug out the number for the Brazilian restaurant. Entering it into his phone, he planned to call just before leaving so he could pick up the order at the curb and go on his way.

He checked his phone again; still no message. Then that meant for sure she wasn't going to object to his arrival, didn't it? He found himself imagining how the evening would go. She would receive him with tentative coolness. He would ask how angry she was and she would say something that meant 'very angry'. Then he would ask if she wanted to eat first or talk. To put off saying or hearing anything to do with them, she would choose eating first. This, he figured, was a good thing, giving him more opportunity to show this frightened deer he meant her no harm. Over the dinner, he would tell her what the call had been about and why he felt he had to respond. He would tell her about the next day, trying to let her know how very busy he was and how time had slipped away until it was too late. He would apologize again and again, saying he was wrong for having rushed off without explanation and that she deserved better from him. Then he would share the good bits of this day, showing why he loved his job.

His thoughts were interrupted.

"H, we're calling it a day and going over to The Blarney for a few drinks to let off steam. You coming?"

Horatio looked up from some forms he was filling out. "Thanks Eric, I already have other plans."

The crooked grin lit the Russo-Cuban face into a pleased leer. "You and Solange? Well, bring her too."

"You enjoy yourselves."

Eric shrugged. "We'll talk about you behind your back, you know."

A rare smile showed back. "You get what you give, brother."

Eric laughed and closed the door.

Horatio pretended to work while the lights at the lab stations were turned out one by one. He was more than ready to leave but his sense of duty declared he had to greet the first of the night crew before leaving.

After a while, he found the stored number for the restaurant and called in the order.

Forty minutes later, Horatio stood at the orange door and knocked. The lighting through the closed curtains showed dim in the face of the brighter glow from the streetlight in the front. She often left lights on timers so that the house never looked empty. There was no immediate answer.

After a few moments, he knocked again. With no answer still, he nervously pulled out his phone and checked for messages. There was nothing. Waiting, he heard no footsteps, no sounds from inside.

Leaving the large bag on the front porch, he walked around to the side of the house and, in the faint light from the street, found the fake rock where the spare key was hidden. Lifting it up, he felt guilty about doing this and yet justified. She knew he was coming and had not said anything to deny his arrival. There was no reason to think she would come to harm but then, some of her customers were on the kinky side in his view. She always checked her phone messages and so she was expecting him, wasn't she?

He felt the first shock of alarm when he opened the compartment in the plastic rock and found it empty. Though the light from the front was dim in this area, he knew the feel of plastic from the coral rocks among the green reeds. Still, as a precaution, he checked the rocks on either side and found them all solid.

Slowly he walked to the back, opened the gait and went into the yard. He first tried to look into the windows but all were curtained. This was unusual since Solange was one to leave those windows unveiled. He tried the back door but it was locked as he expected it should be if she was not home.

Returning to the front, he pulled out his phone. "Natalia, have you talked with Solange in the last few days?"

After a pause where the background noise of the bar faded, Natalia replied, "No but that's not unusual. Is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure. I thought we were supposed to meet at her house. I knocked a couple of times and she seems to be gone. This isn't like her so I thought to get the spare key in the rock and check. Natalia, the key is gone."

"I'm going to call my Aunt and see what's going on. Can you wait a bit?"

"I'm not moving without some answers."

Numbly, Horatio picked up the bag and took it to his car. Inside, he pulled out a container and a fork and began to eat. He didn't taste what he ate, didn't care what it was, he only knew that his body needed food, period. Under most circumstances, he would have eaten four times the amount; as it was, when the small plastic bowl was half empty, he put the cover back on and placed it carefully into the bag.

A moment later, his phone rang into life.

"Horatio, I talked with my Aunt Aliza. She said that Solange was upset the other day and that she wouldn't say why. Then she told her she had made a decision and she would call back in a couple of weeks. Horatio, for any of us to not talk with our mothers for more than a couple of days is unusual. A week or more is a sign of real trouble."

"Did her mother think there was anything seriously wrong?"

"I thought of that too. We all know that Solange just goes off on these tangents every once in a while. I know she suddenly took a trip to Utah. Do you know anything about that?"

"Only that she was visiting a friend who owns a small massage spa out there."

"That doesn't explain the missing key. Well, maybe she lost her own key and had to use the rock key until she could get a duplicate made."

While talking with Natalia, Horatio kept an eye on the front door. He kept hoping the door would open, that he would see Solange smiling and beckoning to him. He did not notice the car pull up behind him or hear the quiet slam of the car door as the driver exited. What he did see was a woman dressed in slacks and a blazer approach the door and, using a key, open it.

"Natalia, someone is using a key to enter the house. I'm going to see what is going on."

"Okay. Call me as soon as you know anything, please. I'm really worried now."

Before the woman could close the door, Horatio called out, "Excuse me. Can you give me some information?"

The full figured woman with heavily mascaraed eyes looked at the approaching man with a bit of alarm. She relaxed only slightly when she saw the badge he pulled from his pocket. "Is there anything wrong here?"

"My name is Lieutenant Horatio Caine."

"Oh dear! All I know is that I was supposed to do a walkthrough to get an idea of what kind of price we can put on this little charmer."

"Excuse me?"

"Are you thinking of buying? I was told this little doll is a ready buy."

I take it you are a real estate broker, then. Did you say this house is up for sale?" Horatio was so taken aback he did not even fully comprehend what the woman had said.

"Oh yes, my boss gave me the key. I was just going to inspect it." She spread her bright red lips over dazzling white teeth.

"Would you mind if I go in first? I was supposed to have met with the owner for dinner here this evening. Two days ago, she said nothing of selling so I think there is something wrong here."

The woman stopped holding the open door handle and sidled by Horatio out to the small porch. She nearly stumbled as she quickly went down the steps. "By all means you go in. I've heard some real horror tales of first walkthroughs."

Horatio took his pistol out of his coat pocket where he kept it when off duty. He posed at the threshold on alert, his gun pointed in his eyesight. He froze as his eyes covered everything, searching. Although never 'full' of furniture, the living room was now completely devoid of everything, even pictures on the wall, except for one standing lamp. Moving to the French doors that led to the darkened massage studio, he pulled out his flashlight and carefully opened one door and stepped in to find that, too, empty. The therapeutic hot tub was still out on the deck but had been drained. Now, puzzled, he walked down the hall and briefly turned on the light in the bathroom. All of the towels and her personal items in the bathroom were gone. The bedroom was as empty as the living room had been. The walls were also bare of the few pictures he remembered. Only the kitchen, at first glance, seemed as it should be until he noticed the small table and two chairs in the dining nook were gone. Opening a couple of cupboards, he found them bare. He opened the small walk-in pantry and found only a line of ants from a crack at the wall to a small crumb on the floor, nothing more.

Drawing back and closing the narrow door, he pocketed his pistol and flashlight. Standing in the dark, he leaned against the small counter top to think. Folding one arm against his chest and balancing his other elbow in the palm of that hand, this brought his other hand up to his lips where one knuckle moved up and down the dimple above his lip while his thumb played with the corner of his mouth. His eyes were as dark a blue as they had ever been in a long while. 'Where, why, how' were words that swam in his head.

He only knew that no kidnapper in his career ever cleaned out the owner's house. Nor did thieves clean out household goods. This left Solange almost undoubtedly acting on her own. She had given no indication two evenings ago so the act was incited by something since then. That left the 'why' question unanswered. How was fairly obvious. Where, he was almost sure he could find in short order; moving companies kept records.

His reverie was broken by an inquiry coming from the front door.

"Hello? Is it alright to come in now?"

Pulling himself upright, he met the woman in the living room. "Can you call your office and find out when the request for sale of the house came in?"

Fifteen minutes later, speeding away, he was on his phone. "Natalia, Solange is gone, her house is empty and it's up for sale."

"What?"

If anyone else had been in the car they would have heard the loud exclamation clearly.

"After I talked to you, a real estate agent drove up. She was going to inspect the property. Apparently Solange had come into the office day before yesterday about three in the afternoon. An hour later they had all rights to sell the house. I'm guessing she moved out yesterday."

"Horatio, I don't know what to say. I know she has always been her own woman and has bounced around some. It just seemed like she was here to stay."

"We'll talk on Monday." Horatio folded his phone and aimed the car at the lab.

Eighteen hours later, he sat in his office and listened to repeated ringing expecting to hear a voicemail pickup. Just as he thought her phone might be broken, he heard a silence and then a friendly sounding voice.

"Hello?"

Without preamble, he said, "My name is Horatio Caine and I'm looking for Solange. Is she at this number?"

After a brief pause, the voice replied gently, "Just a moment, I'll see."

Finally, a familiar voice came online. "Horatio, so you tracked me down. I sort of thought you would."

The coolness in her voice made his bones ache. "Why did I have to? Didn't you get my call on Friday morning?"

After a pause, her edged voice declared, "Too little, too late." Then, with a heavy sigh, as she continued, "Look, I get it, I really do. Your job takes loads of time. I guess I'm looking for more than I got."

Without thinking he replied, "I think I did misunderstand. How much time were you looking for?" Horatio knew the answer.

Her answer came quick and angry. "That night at least. In my mind, we were going to make love until we were too exhausted and then sleep until morning. After that, well, you have a job and so do I. If we couldn't hook up for a day, a week or so after that, we'd have phone calls, lunch, dinner, all that. I wasn't looking to join at the hip with you. I just think I deserved better than I got." Her voice took on a flat tone, as if going over an often repeated litany.

Horatio swallowed. "So you judged me and passed sentence without further word? I left a message explaining what had happened."

"Yeah, I got it. Again, not enough. I spoke my piece several times before. It's not like you didn't know what I wanted. I'm tired of slam, bam, thank you ma'am. So, if you want to say I judged your actions and took them for what they were, yes, I did."

"And you are safe where you are?"

"Oh, don't give me that! How would you know if I was safe? You are a dedicated man, so much so you were up and out of the bed without looking back. You couldn't find the time to call me and apologize for a day and a half or so. Kiddo, maybe if this wasn't our first time, me taking a hell of a big chance, again, I'd get used to your ways in time. As it is, no, so, I had to move out of Dodge."

For a moment, Horatio wanted to tear back at Solange's outrage. Before he did, he took control, holding his breath. He couldn't blame her. He could never guarantee that this would not happen again and again. Only briefly, when Marisol was alive, did he even think about not running off to work on the slightest excuse. But that had been different. She was so ill, so frail, that she needed someone by her almost full time. That had been a lifetime ago. He knew now that Solange was not any less delicate, though not so visibly. Breathing again, he said, "I am truly sorry, sweetheart. I miss you."

After a pause, the dreaded reply came, "I wish I could say the same."

Horatio heard the soft click that ended the call. He put the phone down on the desk and stared at it for quite some time. He knew that it wasn't going to ring and yet he gazed as if trying to mesmerize it into life.

Sometime later, breaking himself from the paralysis of the hope, he leaned forward, placing his elbows on the plastic topped desk. Alone in the office with the morning sun trying hard to brighten his day, Horatio captured the darkness in his mind by pushing the palms of his hands into his eyes. For a long while, he sat in that position in the Sunday stillness which was interrupted only by the occasional muffled sounds from the skeleton crew in the lab below.

_It had happened again! A woman he was sincerely falling in love with had gone away from him. It had happened before. Some had died suddenly and awfully, and a few, a very few, had walked away or he from them; even Rebecca Nevins, though she had died long after he had broken up with her. Now Solange had gone. Never had he so misread a woman. Or was it that? She had been very plain, had told him about her bad habit of 'falling in love too easily'. Finally she said when she was sure of him, she would maybe trust. Then she had put her trust in him and what had he done? Could he have helped it? On that evening, he had not thought there was a decision. She knew he was on a case. On the other hand, wasn't he always? Yeah, always the 'other hand'. _

Finally he raised his face from his hands and he slowly leaned back in his chair. He looked down at his lean body, at the clothing he wore day in and day out. Dark suit with dark shirt; the lone man in black. He remembered television programs from his childhood, 'Paladin', 'Hopalong Cassidy', 'Maverick', and more. All men who carried a gun and walked alone.

'_My life and welcome to it.' _

_What was it Cardinal Benedetti had once said to him? "My son, in spite of the hype of all those life coaches out there, you cannot have it all. Just as I have a higher calling, so do you. We can only serve one master. I know many in the police force and those who have families either live a ghost of a life as a husband and father or as a police officer. The ghosts in a family usually find themselves alone and paying child support. The ghosts on the force too often find themselves mourned for because they couldn't give full attention on the job. You, Horatio, are not a ghost."_

"_But, Father, I'm a man."_

"_As am I. I had to choose, as so many people do, as you must."_

That conversation had been a long time ago. He had dismissed it and the Cardinal had never brought it up again in their rare conversations. Now, it came back in all its harsh overtones. Horatio wondered if it was perhaps time to rethink his life.

'_But not now.'_

In a single lithe movement, Horatio rose from his chair and picked up his cell.

"Horatio, there you are. Come in."

Horatio could tell that Calleigh was forcing the cheerfulness of her greeting.

Seeing the large bag, she asked, "You know, you don't have to bring a gift on every visit."

He handed it to her with a twinkle in his eye. "Calleigh, grandparents and godparents are given special dispensation on gifting limits. I thought you knew that."

The blond, looking marginally better than she had a couple of days before, peered into the bag. When she looked up, her eyes were welling up.

Horatio gently explained, "Calleigh, I will always buy two of everything for the twins. Jake is still alive and we will bring him home."

After giving him a hug, the grieving woman put the bag beside the wall just inside the entrance to the living room. She drew out one of the toys and leading Horatio forward, called out, "Frank, look what Horatio brought."

For the rest of the day, Horatio lost himself in the joys of playing with his godson and his family.

The End…?


End file.
